CANBERRA: Australia has already exported more than half of its beef quota to the US this year.
And it means the US beef quota could be triggered, unless slaughter and export trends change dramatically.
The Department of Agriculture data, released late last week, shows the US continues to be Australia’s biggest beef customer, having taken 227,148 tonnes of beef in the six months to June, a 48 per cent increase on a year earlier.
The current Australian beef quota to the US is 418,214 tonnes, meaning there is only 191,066 tonnes of beef that can be exported to the US before a tariff is charged. Rabobank Beef Quarterly report author Angus Gidley-Baird said if they continued at this rate exports would reach the US quota “around November”.
Meat and Livestock Australia market information manager Ben Thomas said the current high slaughter rates, driving higher export volumes, were expected to come back in the next six months.
Mr Thomas said what was interesting about the US exports was the volume of chilled grass-fed high value cuts increased 76 per cent year-on-year to 76,000 tonnes.
“Assisting this demand is the fact most beef in the US is grain-fed and consumers there are searching for grass-fed product.”
Meanwhile, Australian beef exports hit a record financial year volume of 1.35 million tonnes. This is a huge 18 per cent rise, or 163,668 tonnes up on 2013-14.
The data shows the US was the major customer for the financial year, taking 471,242 tonnes — up from 265,000 tonnes in 2013-14.
Exports to Japan for the financial year were strong, up 23,782 tonnes to a total of 303,483 tonnes, while South Korea took slightly more at 156,915 tonnes. Calendar year to date volumes to Japan increased 7.4 per cent to 141,814 tonnes.
