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Huge export volume to the US for 2014-15 fiscal year
09 July 2015
Australian beef exports to the US for the 2014-15 fiscal year reached a staggering 471,242 tonnes swt – a jump of 77% on the previous year (Department of Agriculture). The growth in exports was across almost every major export beef category, as US importers and end users spent much of the last 12–18 months looking for beef to supplement declining domestic supplies. The rise in demand in the US over the last year has overlapped very well with the ongoing large numbers of Australian cattle being processed.
Manufacturing beef exports made up the majority (68%) of the beef shipped to the US for the fiscal year, at 320,610 tonnes swt – 75% higher than the year before. Of high value chilled product, grassfed shipments rose 72%, to 76,282 tonnes swt, while grainfed exports were 145% higher, at 11,187 tonnes swt.
Most of the increase in exports occurred earlier in the year, when US end-users started to realise that beef would be in relatively low supply, and this is reflected in a “relatively small” year-on-year increase in beef exports to the US during June, up 36%, to 40,988 tonnes swt. As with most of the year, the majority of cuts were higher this June, compared with June 2014.
