Off the back of a roller-coaster 2016/17 for global beef markets, the outlook remains challenging, with a number of factors set to continue to impact Australian red meat exports.
While the Australian cattle herd has been in a rebuilding phase for most of the year, export volumes dropped below 1 million tonnes to 963,000 tonnes – down 17% on 2015/16. This comes at a time when our competitors have ample product for global markets and have been regaining access and pushing strongly into key markets. This, combined with the Australian dollar hovering around the 80c mark and cattle supply remaining tight, will see the road to the end of the year remain full of challenges.
Despite the challenging environment, Australian beef remains very well positioned in key north Asia markets, with the Japan and Korea markets continuing to underpin Australian exports.
In both markets favourable market access attained through respective free trade agreements have positioned Australian red meat into a position of strength – allowing Australian beef in particular to ride through the challenging global environment.
The strength of these two key markets helps to reinforce the importance of the Australian red meat industry continuing to push for greater market access advantages across the globe. For MLA, market access in existing and emerging markets continues to be a priority. Working with the broader Australian red meat industry, and the Australian Government, there are a number of activities underway to strengthen our position in key markets.
MLA has recently bolstered our Trade and Market Access Team, enabling us to increase our work including coordinating research into reducing market access barriers and developing industry position papers for government.
Some priorities for the red meat industry, and therefore MLA, include:
- Australia-European Union FTA
- Brexit / UK FTA
- Trans-Pacific Partnership
- Australia-Indonesia Closer Economic Partnership Agreement
- FTA with Pacific Alliance (Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile) following the Australian Government recently embarking on negotiations.
https://www.mla.com.au/news-and-events/industry-news/market-access-key-amid-global-challenges/
