AUSTRALIA will face further tariff pressure on red meat exports in coming weeks, as South Korea looks set to activate its Safeguard mechanism designed to protect its own domestic beef industry.

Australia yesterday hit 90 percent of its South Korean beef quota for 2026, suggesting the tariff will be triggered some time in July.

The current pace of trade suggests the quota will be filled six weeks earlier than last year. Australia regularly triggers its annual quota in Korea, but this has traditionally happened much later in the annual cycle – mid-September last year, late October in 2024 and early December the year before that.

Our quota this year sits at 196,000t, with about 177,000t now used. After the quota is filled, Australian beef entering Korea will be exposed to a tariff of 24pc for the remainder of the year, up from the current level of 5.3pc.

This news comes on top of an even steeper 55pc tariff now faced by Australian beef exports entering China, following the triggering of our 205,000t China quota a fortnight ago.

In both markets, robust Australian output is hitting the market at a time when United States beef export volumes remain constrained by a beef herd at 70-year lows.

The combined impact of both Chinese and Korean tariffs being triggered in quick succession is yet to play out in the export meat market, but the result is inevitably going to be negative on demand and pricing, trade sources told Beef Central this morning.

“Effectively our second and fourth largest export markets now carry a much greater tax burden for the remainder of the year,” one trader said.

China took 272,000t of Australian beef last year – second only to the United States in volume – while South Korea ranked fourth among export customers with 221,00t.

Forward buying

A recent MLA summary about Korea said despite the early safeguard trigger action likely this year, industry behaviour remained consistent with previous years.

“Importers are already planning for a surge in orders toward the end of the 2026 calendar year, timed for clearance on 1 January 2027, allowing product to enter Korea at the lower duty rate once a new quota year begins under the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement,” MLA said.

“Larger end-users, including major retailers and foodservice chains, have already secured significant supply for the remainder of the year. Their scale and forward contracting capacity give them protection from the tariff spike.

“The pressure will fall more heavily on smaller businesses, which may struggle to secure supply or absorb the higher tariff, especially with the Korean won currently weak, increasing the landed cost of imported beef.

“Last year, some of the tariff increases were passed directly through to consumers, and the same is expected this year. Korean retail beef prices are likely to rise as importers and distributors adjust to the higher duty rate.

“At the same time, the price of Korean domestic beef (Hanwoo) is forecast to increase toward the end of the year. Hanwoo competes directly with premium Australian long-fed beef, meaning Korean consumers may face higher prices across both domestic and imported categories.”