November 13, 2008

Australian beef shipments to Japan fell 8 percent on-year to 30,406 tonnes in October, according to Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) on Wednesday (Nov 12, 2008).

High value grainfed beef exports fell 16 percent on-year and down 3 percent from September.

Frozen beef shipments declined 4 percent on-year and dropped 11 percent from September.

Frozen grainfed beef exports remained level from last year, but fell 10 percent from the previous month. Frozen grassfed beef also fell 5 percent on-year and 11 percent on-month.

Instability of the Australian dollar has attributed to these results, according to MLA market analyst Miho Kondo. Importers are uncertain about the future therefore they are holding back purchases until the exchange rate situation becomes clearer, said Kondo.

Kondo expects export levels to improve in the future as the depreciating Australian dollar is beneficial to exporters for the long-term.

However, chilled grassfed beef reported good results, with exports up 52 percent to 6,024 tonnes from September.

Bucking the trend, exports of chilled grassfed beef were up 52 pct from September at 6,024 tons.