Western Australian Beef Commentary

Boxed beef exports

Volume

The volume of beef exported from WA fell from 47 million kilograms (carcase equivalents (ceq)) in 2008 to 25 million kilograms (ceq) in 2012; however between 2012 and 2015 WA beef exports have increased 72% to 43 million kilograms (ceq). The volume exported in 2015 was just 9% less than the highest volume exported over the last decade, recorded in 2008.

Beef exports from Australia as a whole prior to 2012 were relatively stable; however since then exports have been rapidly increasing. Between 2012 and 2015 beef exports increased 31% from 1.47 billion kilograms (ceq) to 1.93 billion kilograms (ceq). This increase was partly due to the opening up of markets such as China, Malaysia and Vietnam and the sell-down of the herd due to sustained dry periods in Queensland and New South Wales.

Figure 7 Volume of beef exported (million kilograms carcase equivalent weight) by Australia (LHS) and WA (RHS) (Based on ABS data, DAFWA analysis)

During 2014 the largest market by volume for WA beef was Japan, which accounted for 27% of all beef exported (Figure 8). During 2015 however, the Japanese market only accounted for 16% of WA beef exports.

China, which imported just 6% of beef exports in 2014, doubled its share to 12% in 2015 and the USA increased its beef imports from 8% of WA exports in 2014 to 15% in 2015.

Figure 8 Proportion of WA beef exported to major markets by volume (ceq) during 2014 and 2015 (Based on ABS data, DAFWA analysis)

Value

The value of WA beef exports, while displaying a trend similar to that of volume, has been even more dramatic. As seen below in Figure 9, the value of WA beef exports hit a low point in 2012 of $68 million, but has since increased 170% to $184 million in 2015. This is the highest beef export value reached to date.

There has been a similar increase in that timeframe in the value of Australian beef exports. In 2012 the value of Australian beef exports was $4.8 billion, but that figure has risen 96% to $9.3 billion in 2015. This also, is the highest beef export value achieved in history.

Figure 9 Value (A$ million) of beef exported from Australia (LHS) and WA (RHS) (Based on ABS data, DAFWA analysis)

Due to the different cuts preferred by individual countries, the proportion of value attributed to international markets can be different to that attributed to them based on volume.

In 2014 the largest market by value for WA beef was Japan which accounted for 21% of the value of WA beef exports. This was followed by Korea and Indonesia with 17% each, the USA with 10% and China with 6%. In 2015 the USA became the largest market by value for WA beef, accounting for 16% of the value of WA beef exports, just slightly higher than Korea which also took 16%. Japan slipped back to third largest market accounting for 15% of the value of WA beef exports, Indonesia fell to 14% and China grew to 12%.

Figure 10 Proportion of WA beef exported to major markets by value during 2014 and 2015 (Based on ABS data, DAFWA analysis)