BEEF export volumes have kept their sizzle during August recording the second highest export month on record on the back of continued drought-induced slaughter supply.
Assisting export demand has been the lower Australian dollar (compared to previous years) and lower cattle prices, which Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) has confirmed as assisting the price competitiveness of Australian beef in numerous markets.
Bindaree Beef general manager of livestock Michael Spencer, Inverell, confirmed international demand for beef products, such as Bindaree’s branded exports, should be long term.
For the past five months, the company has concentrated on producing Meat Standard Australia (MSA) graded brands which were expected to boost its customer base and the premium for its suppliers.
“Instead of just having a commodity-based business, we want to go into growing our branded products,” Mr Spencer said.
“The aim is we (suppliers and Bindaree) share in that revenue.”
Mr Spencer said countries experiencing high meat prices had secured markets for Bindaree, such as the US.
Good demand for these branded products had also strengthened international trade as numerous markets wanted to sell higher quality Australian products, he said.
For the first eight months of 2014, Australian beef export volumes bounced 114,000 tonnes (shipped weight) on the corresponding period last year.
MLA said, when converted to carcase weight equivalents, this equated to about 611,000 head of cattle.
Comparatively, total adult cattle slaughter for the same period was estimated to have increased 525,000 to 550,000 head.
MLA concluded this showed the additional beef produced throughout the past eight months has been consumed in overseas markets.
Maintaining the trend of the past two years, the Department of Agriculture has reported beef and veal exports for August reached 111,872t.
MLA calculated this was more than 14 per cent greater than the corresponding period in 2013.
While falling short of the all-time high registered in July, at 121,525t, MLA reported August would still be the second highest export month on record.
Total Australian beef and veal exports for the first eight months of 2014 stand at 818,095t – an average of about 102,000t per months.
Shipments to the US have boomed when compared to the same time last year.
At 37,449t exported during August, that’s double the total in August 2013.
This total also maintains the US position as the largest export market for Australia.
Exports to Japan were slightly up year-on-year, hitting 27,049t.
In contrast volumes to Korea (12,140t) and the Middle East (4288t) were slightly lower year-on-year.
MLA said before the recent drought induced spike in slaughter and exports, the record high for any month was set in November 2006, at 94,693t.