Subscribe to The Weekly e-newsletter
For in-depth red meat market news, information and analysis.
Chilled lamb exports register growth in 2015
03 December 2015
Australian lamb exports in November reached 21,305 tonnes shipped weight (swt) – 12%, or 2,216 tonnes swt, higher year-on-year (Department of Agriculture). With one month of 2015 to go, the year-to-November total is slightly lower (1%) than the corresponding period last year, amounting to 214,591 tonnes swt.
The proportion of chilled lamb shipments has grown this year, from 41% for the January to November period in 2014, to 43% (92,466 tonnes swt) of lamb exports for the same period in 2015. Frozen lamb shipments still make up the majority of Australia’s lamb exports, with 57% (122,125 tonnes swt) of the total volume.
Australia’s major lamb export markets that registered year-on-year growth for the January to November period in 2015 were:
- The Middle East – up 8%, to 63,288 tonnes swt
- The US – up 5%, to 45,080 tonnes swt
- Papua New Guinea – up 84%, to 14,410 tonnes swt
- South East Asia – up 19%, to 12,383 tonnes swt
- Canada – up 11%, to 6,478 tonnes swt
- Korea – up 29%, to 5,503 tonnes swt
Shipments for the year-to-November to China (28,593 tonnes swt), Japan (7,331 tonnes swt) and Hong Kong (1,574 tonnes swt) declined 22%, 21% and 83% year-on-year, respectively. Volumes to the EU were also lower, at 9,783 tonnes swt – back 20% on year-ago levels.
