Australia: February beef exports rise but remain low in historical terms

Published 2023년 3월 6일

Tridge summary

Australian beef exports experienced a significant increase in February compared to the previous month and the year before, though still falling short of the five-year average. This surge is largely due to increased processing activity, leading to higher beef availability for export. Despite challenges such as summer closures and disruptions, key markets like China, Japan, and South Korea saw substantial growth. Emerging markets like Indonesia also showed notable increases, particularly with the timing of the religious festival of Ramadan. However, the European Union's beef purchases remained low without a Free Trade Agreement in place, and the UK market is currently awaiting the trigger of such an agreement.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

There was a solid month-on-month and year-on-year increase in Australian beef exports in February, however volume remains well below the five-year average for the month of 75,300 t. As Australian weekly slaughter data shows, processing activity surged in February, hitting some of the biggest weekly slaughters seen in two and a half years. That put more beef in the system for export, with February data showing a figure of 70,379 tonnes swt – around 8% below the five-year average for the month. However, February trade was over 18,000t or 36% higher than January, which is traditionally the quietest trading month of the year due to the closure of processing plants in the summer. Comparisons to last year's February beef exports are of little value as large parts of Queensland and NSW were submerged in mid-February 2022, leading to lengthy processing plant closures and major arterial roads closed for days and up to weeks. Last year's disruptions were easily the worst since the ...

Source: Beefpoint