GLOBAL burger restaurant giant McDonald’s bought 89,000 tonnes of Australian grinding beef in 2025, cementing the food service operator as easily Australia’s largest single beef customer.

Releasing its biennial ‘Aussie Raw Material Shopping List’ for 2025 yesterday, McDonald’s revealed that the 89,000t of Australian beef used last year covered both its domestic restaurant requirements, plus exports of frozen patties and trimmings for use in its overseas restaurant operations.

That figure was up 9000t or 11pc from a similar McDonald’s raw material volume disclosure made for the 2023 year.

In 2023, the 80,000t overall Australian beef purchase volume that year was broken down further, comprising 36,000t used in Australian restaurants and 44,000t used in other parts of the world – either as patties manufactured in Australia and exported, or as frozen boxed trimmings ground and processed overseas.

Depending on beef supply and demand flows overseas, domestic use of Australian beef purchased by McDonald’s can range from 40pc to 45pc of its total Australian beef purchases, a source close to the company’s procurement operations told Beef Central. This year, that number is at the bottom of that range, because of high demand for lean trimmings in the US market, in the face of low US beef production. Year to date, Australia’s total beef trade into the US has topped 291,000t, up 18pc on the same period last year.

McDonald’s also released a similar set of raw material volume data in 2019, showing significant rises since then. Back in 2019, the domestic-only beef figure was 31,900t.

Since 2019, however, there has been substantial organic growth in the company’s Australian operations. In 2019 McDonald’s operated 970 Australian stores, growing to 1078 as of 6 July this year, up 11pc.

In the US, the company’s beef numbers are exponentially higher, in line with the 350 million population of burger lovers. With almost 14,000 restaurants across the US as of 2025, McDonald’s uses a truly unbelievable amount of its core ingredients, including beef, potatoes and chicken.

In 2023 alone, McDonald’s US revealed that it purchased 325,000t of beef (domestic plus imported frozen) to keep up with demand. That’s equivalent to 2.86 billion quarter-pound patties (by pre-cooked weight).

McDonald’s US has just two partners who have supplied beef patties since the day it opened its very first restaurants – Oklahoma City’s Lopez Dorada and Keystone Foods based in Philadelphia.

$1 billion Australian shipping list

McDonald’s Australia spent more than $1 billion on Aussie fresh produce and ingredients in its 2025 shopping list released yesterday, totalling almost 350,000t in weight. The volume was up by 17,000t on the same report two years earlier.

Among other Australian-sourced items on Macca’s 2023 shopping list were:

• 23,000t of chicken for burgers and sides
• 140,000t of potatoes for fries and hash browns
• 51 million litres of fresh milk for coffees, shakes and desserts
• 21,000t of wheat flour for buns, wraps and bakery items
• 5,200t of eggs (or 89 million) for McMuffins
• 3300t of lettuce for burgers and wraps
• 50,000kg of beetroot for special limited time only burgers

In 2024, McDonald’s flagged a shift in focus to chicken as beef prices started to soar, attracting more customers to poultry options.

“Our chicken category now represents $25 billion in annual global sales, on par with beef,” global CEO Chris Kempczinski told investors in 2024.

However that statement is not clearly reflected in last year’s shopping list, where chicken volume (23,000t), represented only a fraction of beef purchases.

If it’s assumed that domestic Australian restaurant use of beef last year accounted for 40pc of the total Australian beef purchases by McDonald’s (36,000t), it means beef outsold chicken three-to-two, on a tonnage basis. That’s despite the much higher procurement cost, with lean trimmings into the US quoted last week at $10.68/kg CIF into the US.

Growing demand

In a statement supporting yesterday’s ‘2025 Shopping List’ release, McDonald’s said 90pc of its produce and products used in menu items were Australian-sourced, supporting more than 15,000 farmers across the country.

“From potatoes grown in Victoria for our iconic fries, to beef raised by Queensland cattle farmers for great-tasting burgers, the Shopping List offers a behind-the-scenes look at the local ingredients behind some of the country’s most-loved menu items,” the company said.

“It also highlights growing demand across several ingredients, including potatoes, apples, milk, eggs and chicken, reinforcing the important role quality local ingredients play in delivering the flavour and consistency customers expect from Macca’s.”

Australian beef and chicken saw strong growth, supporting the core menu and new products including McCrispy, McWings (chicken) and the Big Arch (beef), the company said.

“Menu innovation created new opportunities for Australian farmers, with limited-time favourites such as the McOz (beef burger) introducing beetroot to the Shopping List.”

Beyond the burger, McDonald’s continued to expand its support of the local agricultural industry through categories such as oats, almonds and canola, helping to meet evolving customer preferences while supporting a diverse network of local farmers and suppliers, the statement said.

McDonald’s Australia director of supply chain, Jeanelle Boyce, said: “Great-tasting menu items start with great-quality ingredients, and our Shopping List showcases the Australian farmers and suppliers behind many of the customer favourites Australians enjoy every day.”

“The quality of our menu starts long before ingredients reach our restaurants. It begins with the care, expertise and dedication of Australian farmers and suppliers across the country.

“We’re incredibly proud of our long-standing partnerships with Australian farming communities, whose commitment helps us serve great-quality, great-tasting food and drinks to millions of Australians every year.”

• Australia’s first McDonald’s restaurant opened in Yagoona, Sydney, in 1971. Today there 1027 McDonald’s restaurants across Australia, 85 percent of which are owned and run by local franchisees. The organisation employs more than 115,000 people in restaurants and corporate offices Australia-wide and is one of the largest employers of youth in the country.