Australia feeds the world

ALTHOUGH China’s past ban on Australian agriculture commodities did harm farmers’ bottom line, the agriculture industry took the challenge head-on, finding alternative markets and expanding its reach around the world.

As a result, in 2024 Australia exported 2.24 million tonnes of red meat to 102 markets, representing the largest volume of red meat ever exported.

The figures released by Meat & Livestock Australia’s (MLA) annual global Market Snapshots Report demonstrate the competitive advantages and growth opportunities for Australian red meat across the world.

Manager of global market insights for MLA, Miho Kondo, noted the importance of MLA’s market snapshots is that they provide the latest data and insights for Australia’s red meat industry.

“It is absolutely vital for our industry to have access to up-to-date market and consumer insights on our key global markets in order to consolidate our competitive advantages and leverage growth opportunities,” she said.

“Understanding our target consumers and market dynamics is a key factor in understanding which products will deliver higher returns in particular sectors and segments.”

Data drawn from the report show that in 2024, the United States was the largest importer of Australian red meat by volume last year, importing 394,716 tonnes of beef and 85,133 tonnes of lamb.

According to Ms Kondo, Australian beef helped to fill a hole left by a domestic supply shortage of local product.

“American consumers are some of the largest consumers of red meat in the world, but the American cattle herd reached a more than seven-decade low following years of drought; this created opportunities for imported beef suppliers such as Australia,” she said. “Consumer preference has also been diversifying in the market, and the past year consistently saw double-digit growth for grassfed beef in retail from increased availability and presence of grassfed beef in store.

“The US was also the largest market for lamb, with more restaurants across different food service segments adopting lamb to cater to growing interest in lamb when dining out.”

The report emphasised that Australian red meat exports to mainland China rebounded after a slow start in 2024, with China now the largest market for Australian mutton.

“China’s affluent consumer base is forecast to continue to expand, along with growing appreciation for premium red meat products, providing a great opportunity for Australian red meat,” Ms Kondo said.

Japan was the second largest beef export market for Australia in 2024, but the proportion of lower value products increased, impacted by sticky inflation, a weakened Yen and slow real wage growth continuing to weigh on Japanese consumer spending.

“Despite the challenges, Australia has benefited from softened competition from the US, increasing our market share in the Japanese imported beef market,” Ms Kondo said.

Australian beef exports to Korea were strong in 2024, triggering the beef safeguard volume earlier than usual. The 2025 safeguard trigger volume is set at 170,659 tonnes shipped weight (swt), and the tariff applicable to Australian beef exported to Korea has dropped to 8 per cent in 2025.

A significantly larger proportion of Australian red meat was shipped to destinations outside the top three markets (the US, China and Japan) in 2024 (47 per cent versus 41 per cent in 2019), driven by the young, expanding and increasingly affluent consumer base in regions such as the Middle East and South-East Asia.