December 10, 2009

Australian chilled grainfed beef drives exports to Japan

Australia exported 27,720 tonnes swt of beef to Japan in November, up 3% against last year, an increase thanks to strong grainfed beef shipments.

Both grainfed chilled and frozen items increased by 23% (to 10,716 tonnes) and 33% (to 3,474 tonnes), respectively, year-on-year.

The improvement was a result of increased product availability, largely due to lower feed grain prices, and firm sales at Japanese retail. Despite this, grainfed beef exports in November were still 10% lower than the five-year average.

In contrast, chilled grassfed exports fell 30% year-on-year to 3,317 tonnes, affected by tight cattle supply and weak export prices (in A$ terms).

In the calendar year to November, beef exports to Japan totalled 327,738 tonnes, just 1% below the same time last year.