An end-of-year surge to fill Indonesian feedlots ahead of the 2025 Ramadan period from February 28 to March 30 pushed final export cattle numbers for the calendar year 2024 to 763,527 head.
December was the busiest month of trade for 2024 with 91,013 cattle exported – the largest monthly volume exported from Australia for 55 months since June 2020 (124,241 head).
Exports to Indonesia totalled 79,870 head in December, 60 percent above the five-year average for the month.
That took total exports to Indonesia in 2024 to 537,274 head, representing the largest year of trade to the major market since 2019.
The balance of December exports occurred to Vietnam with 4129 head, the Philippines with 3120 head and Jordan with 1900 head from Fremantle and Pakistan with 1950 breeder cattle exported from Portland.
64,868 cattle were exported from Darwin in December, followed by 11,956 cattle from Fremantle and 10,552 from Townsville.
The largest export destinations for cattle exports in Australia in 2024
- Indonesia – 537,274 head
- Vietnam – 119,634
- China – 52,599
- Philippines – 24,019
- Jordan – 8692
- Pakistan – 5096
- Malaysia – 4440
- Sabah – 3652
- Brunei Darussalam – 3480
- Israel – 2728
One would assume the falling Aus$ will only assist in the demand for our Beef into FY25. I suppose the million $ question is by how much; Aus$ is down 5.54% of the 2024 average but it is only January.