Western Australian Beef Commentary

Live exports

Volume

As evident in Figure 11, the volume of live cattle exported from WA has been highly variable over the last 10 years. During October 2015, the ABS classified live cattle exports as confidential, resulting in no data being released for the month of October 2015 for WA. Data was released for Australia as a whole, but not state details.

The number of live cattle exported from WA (Figure 11) peaked in 2009 when 361 000 cattle were exported live, before falling to 217 000 in 2012. Live cattle exports have since increased, reaching 258 000 in 2015 (not including October exports); an increase of 19% compared to 2012.

Australian live cattle exports displayed a similar pattern. Following a high point in 2009 when 891 000 head were exported, the figure fell to 505 000 head in 2012. Since then there has been a significant recovery of 143% to 1.23 million in 2015. 

Figure 11 Number of cattle exported live from Australia (LHS) and WA (RHS) (Based on ABS data, DAFWA analysis) 2

During 2014 the largest market for WA’s live cattle exports was Indonesia, accounting for 43% of cattle, followed by Israel with 27%, Malaysia with 11%, Egypt with 9% and Vietnam with 4%. During 2015 (October exports excluded), while the destinations were the same, the proportion of live cattle exported to each market changed dramatically. The proportion of cattle exported to Vietnam increased from 4% in 2014 to 28% in 2015, making it the largest market by volume for WA live cattle exports. Live cattle exports to Indonesia fell from 43% to 26%, Israel fell to 22%, Malaysia remained at 11% and Egypt took 7% of WA’s live cattle exports (Figure 12).

Figure 12 Proportion of cattle exported live to major markets from WA by volume in 2014 and 2015* (Based on ABS data, DAFWA analysis)[1] [1] 2015* -WA data does not include October exports due to confidentiality issues.

Value

The value of WA live cattle exports has also been quite variable over the last decade, as seen below in Figure 13.

In 2010, WA live cattle exports were worth $233.1 million before falling to $154.2 million in 2012. Since then, it recovered to $253.3 million in 2015, up 64% from 2012 and the highest value reached over the last decade, despite October data not being included.

The value of Australian live cattle exports reached $551.5 million in 2009 before falling to $353 million in 2012. Since then there has been significant recovery, with the value of live cattle exports reaching $994.1 million in 2014 and $1.2 billion in 2015, an increase of 249% since 2012.

Figure 13  Value (A$ million) of cattle exported live from Australia (LHS) and WA (RHS) (Based on ABS data, DAFWA analysis)2

In 2014, the largest market by value for live cattle exports from WA was Indonesia which accounted for 44% of the total value of live cattle exports. This was followed by Israel worth 26%, Malaysia valued at 11%, Egypt worth 8% and Vietnam at 4%.

During 2015 (October data excluded), the largest market by value was Vietnam which accounted for 29% of the value of live cattle exported from WA, as seen in Figure 14. The second largest market by value was Israel with 24%, followed by Indonesia with 23%, Malaysia with 12% and Egypt with 7%. 

Figure 14 Proportion of WA cattle exported live to major markets by value in 2014 and 2015 (Based on ABS data, DAFWA analysis)2