Aussie meat sector gears up for the third FY marked by COVID
The third fiscal year under the sign of COVID crisis has begun and the Australian red meat industry gears up to another period marked by uncertainties in consumption across the main export markets. This year, MLA’s international marketing efforts have been further boosted by grant funding from both the Federal Government (via the Agri-Business Expansion Initiative) and the Victorian Government. The funding will be used to amplify and extend MLA’s promotions, putting local business development managers on the ground in Saudi Arabia, Vietnam and Thailand, growing the reach of the successful ‘Lambassador’ program and expanding US grass-fed beef promotions into new territories. We welcome the partnership as an encouraging sign that our international marketing programs are considered worthy of co-investment, said Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) in a press release.
"Despite COVID-19 and the other headwinds agricultural commodities continue to experience (including drought recovery dampening supply), Australia’s red meat markets have proven resilient in the past 12 months. The fundamentals of demand for Australian product are very strong, not just in historically large markets such as Japan (our number one beef market last 12 months) and Korea (record for chilled beef in last 12 months) but also in emerging markets. The last 12 months saw record beef shipments to both Thailand and Vietnam (albeit both from small bases) and record chilled beef shipments to the South-East Asia region generally. And for lamb, record shipments to US, Korea, Canada and Taiwan were achieved," commented Andrew Cox, General Manager for International Markets, MLA.
Diplomatic issues raised between Australia and China have wiped out a large market share for frozen beef in the Chinese market but even so, Aussie exports to China have performed well. "There was an all-time percentage high for grain-fed beef exports as a proportion of total beef exports (33%) and close to a record percentage high for chilled beef as a proportion of total beef exports (31%). Despite ongoing geopolitical issues China was our number three beef market and number two sheepmeat market, and building the Aussie Beef and Lamb brand presence in China remains a focus of MLA’s marketing program," added Mr. Cox.
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