August 11, 2010

Australian beef prices hold up despite Indonesian cutbacks

A good season across eastern Australia and renewed live cattle demand from the Middle East may help maintain domestic cattle prices in the short term.

Australia's biggest live cattle market, Indonesia, will slash its live export intake from 715,000 permits last year to 450,000 this year.

It is feared this could flood the domestic market with an additional 200,000 cattle and force prices down.

However, Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) chief economist Tim McRae says prices may hold on. "We've actually got the Middle East taking about 180,000 head of cattle this year, which is up from about 100,000 last year," he says.

Beef prices in the eastern states and North Queensland are at a level above last year, he adds.

While heavy cattle out of northern Australia are putting some pressure on the market, it is nowhere near what has been expected, McRae says.

Meanwhile, a mob of cattle, stuck in the export yards at Wyndham in far north Western Australia, have finally been loaded onto a truck and are heading to Darwin for export.

For the past ten weeks, a mob of 48 young brahmans have been waiting in the yards, a casualty of new weight restrictions enforced by Indonesia.

Cattle over 350 kg are not allowed to be exported to Indonesia, and the same ruling applies to cattle under 200 kg.

Manager of the Wyndham export yards, Joe Atkins, says the cattle arrived just as the new restrictions came into place, and with no trucks heading to Darwin, there has been no other option but to hold them at Wyndham.