DRIVEN by continued strong demand out of the United States and China, Australia’s March beef exports have hit their second highest monthly level on record.
Total volume to all export destinations last month reached 149,973 tonnes, falling just short of the previous record slightly above 150,000t.
The result has been underpinned by high rates of weekly national slaughter since late February, including some of the biggest production weeks seen since the 2019-20 drought turnoff period.
March grainfed export beef shipments were the highest month on record, hitting 45,982t, marginally higher than December last year.
For the full January-March first quarter and calendar year to date, export volume has hit 365,199t. That’s easily an all-time first quarter record, beating last year’s equivalent (in itself the previous record) by an incredible 17pc. And this was achieved despite some significant processing disruptions due to flooding and wet weather in Queensland, especially during February.
Two key customer countries – the United States and China – drove the near record March result, although there were good gains in some other markets.
Once again, insatiable demand out of the United States, where the national beef herd continues to hover around 70 years lows, has driven the March result.
US East and west coast ports during March took 42,043 tonnes of chilled and frozen Australian beef, up about 10,000t or 30pc on the same month last year. While still high in a historical sense, the March volume was still well below the 2015 era when Australia was killing huge numbers of cows during drought, briefly pushing monthly exports to the US above 47,000t.
Exports to China last month were well below volumes predicted by some observers, anticipating a frantic scramble before Australia fills its 2026 China quota of 205,000t.
Last month’s volume at 32,907t was still the third highest month on record, but predictions of +40,000t were well wide of the mark. This month’s shipments may show more of that trend, some trade watchers suggest.
For the January-March quarter (year to date) China has taken 76,562t according to DAFF’s records, or 37pc of Australia’s 2026 quota. However China’s own import records, on which the trade access is based, may tell a slightly different story. What the ‘beef and veal’ shipment data does not show is the extent of other derived items, like beef bones, that are shipped into China in great quantity.
Other Australian beef customer countries like Japan and South Korea bought strongly last month, with Japan taking 23,861t and Korea a near-record 25,543t, both influenced by tight suppliers out of the United States. Japan’s volume was more than 5100t or 27pc higher than March last year, while Korea was 9200t higher year-on-year, up 56pc.
With beef exports into the Middle East region now considerably challenged by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, March beef export volumes into the seven key Middle East countries was seriously impacted.
Despite sea freight being offset to a small degree by more airfreight activity, March exports to the Middle East countries reached just 1644t – down 47 percent on this time last year.
Performance in smaller and emerging markets was mixed during March, with Indonesia taking 3314t of Australian beef, down 35pc on last year, as increasing quantities of cheap Brazilian beef enter the market.
Canada took 4478t in March, up 57pc on last year.
Excellent news.