Beef and sheep Fast Facts released

MLA recently released the annual Australian beef and sheep industry Fast Facts, which provide brief snapshots of key industry statistics – including herd and flock size, production, value, consumption, exports and Australia’s position relative to other countries.

Some highlights from this year’s beef edition include:

• In 2017–18, Australia produced 2.24 million tonnes carcase weight (cwt) of beef and veal (ABS).
• In 2017–18, Australia exported 1.1 million tonnes of beef and veal to over 78 countries, 71% of total production (ABS, DAWR). These exports generated $8 billion (IHS Markit, Global Trade Atlas).
• Australia was the world’s third largest beef and veal exporter in 2017, after India and Brazil (DAWR, IHS Markit, Global Trade Atlas).

From the sheep edition:

• The Australian sheep flock was 72.1 million head at 30 June 2017 (ABS).
• In 2017–18, Australia produced almost 532,000 tonnes carcase weight (cwt) of lamb and 204,000 tonnes cwt of mutton (ABS).
• In 2017–18, Australia exported 61% of total Australian lamb production and 96% of total Australian mutton production (DAWR, ABS).
• Australia was the largest exporter of sheepmeat in the world in 2017 (DAWR, IHS Markit, Global Trade Atlas, Comtrade).

View the MLA Fast Facts here.