Australia destined to remain second largest beef exporter

Beef exports from Australia, are forecast for the fiscal year 2008-9 to be 940,000 tons, keeping Australia’s position as the worlds number two leading beef export country after Brazil.

The value is estimated at AU$4.3 billion, which will be a slight increase on last year, the Russian market looks likely to replace the American market for manufacturing beef.

The future of the beef industry will depend, on how much of the market share in Japan and South Korea Australia can retain.

The new market in Indonesia is a bright spot on the horizon, Indonesia have taken over 30,000 tons of carton beef this year.

Getting Indonesia to make the transition from live cattle to carcass beef, should be the priority of the MLA. This is not a question of if, rather a question of when they can make the change.