AUSTRALIAN red meat exports are set for a record-breaking year, with 1.1 million tonnes of beef, 303,854t of lamb and 42,004t of goatmeat exported to the end of October. 

Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) reported last week Australian beef and goatmeat set new monthly records for export volumes in October and, along with lamb and mutton, are on track to hit record exports for the year. 

MLA global supply analyst, Tim Jackson, said 130,049t of beef was exported from Australia in October, which was the second record-breaking month for the year. Goatmeat export volumes also set a new monthly record, with 5772t sent overseas in October.  

Jackson said the United States was Australia's largest market for beef, lamb and goatmeat, while China was the largest market for mutton. 

AUSTRALIAN BEEF EXPORTS HIT RECORD VOLUMES

Australian beef exports for October were 24 per cent higher than in October 2023, according to Jackson, setting a new record for  beef export volume for a single month. 

"The United States was the largest market for Australian beef for the month, with exports rising 64 per cent year-on-year to 45,338 tonnes. This is the second-highest volume of beef exported to the US in a single month," he said. 

"While frozen exports made up the majority of beef exported, chilled exports saw an 88 per cent rise year-on-year to 11,572 tonnes, the highest chilled volume to the US on record." 

Jackson said South Korea was the second largest market for Australian beef last month, with exports rising 13 per cent year-on-year to 19,733t, while the largest increase was in exports to Indonesian - up 95 per cent on October last year to 11,026t. 

With 1.1Mt of beef exported to the end of October and as per the forecast in the latest Cattle Projections (as per chart below), Jackson said Australian beef is well positioned break the previous export volume record set in 2014. 

AUSTRALIAN LAMB AND MUTTON EXPORTS ON TRACK FOR RECORD-BREAKING YEAR

While exports of lamb fell 13 per cent, compared to October last year, to 26,673t, Jackson said volumes are up 14 per cent for the year-to-date at 303,854t. He added this indicates 2024 is likely to be a record year for lamb export volumes.   

Meanwhile, he reported exports of mutton rose 35 per cent year-on-year to 27,217t in October - the largest monthly figure since 1994.

Jackson said the decline in lamb exports for October was largely due to a 38 per cent year-on-year decline in exports to China, however the country was still the second largest market for Australian lamb last month. 

"The largest market for the month was the US, where exports lifted 18 per cent year-on-year to 6681 tonnes," he said. 

"This is following the trend observed throughout the year- exports to the US year-to-date have lifted 32 per cent to 71,943 tonnes."

China remained the largest market for mutton, with Jackson reporting it accounted for over half of exports in October, at 14,613t (43 per cent above October 2023). 

He said the largest rise in exports came from Malaysia, with exports lifting 87 per cent year-on-year to 3164 tonnes, while exports to the US rose 53 per cent year-on-year to 2040t.  

GOATMEAT EXPORTS UP 48 PER CENT IN OCTOBER 

Meanwhile, goatmeat exports from Australia rose 48 per cent year-on-year in October, with Jackson reporting the US was the largest market. He said goatmeat exports to the US rose 43 per cent year-on-year to 2827t, making up over half of the month's total goatmeat exports.

"The majority of the remainder of goatmeat went to South Korea and China," Jackson said. 

"For the year, exports of goatmeat are already higher than the previous calendar year record at 42,004 tonnes year-to-October compared to 35,780 tonnes for the previous record year of 2014."