Australian April beef exports surge to near-record 127,000t

Australian chilled and frozen beef exports surged to near record highs in April, reaching 127,172t, as the red meat industry’s production surged sharply. That figure is up almost 14,800t from March, and 21,800t or 21pc higher than April last year, Beef Central said.

Last month was in fact the fourth highest export month on record, exceeded only by October (130,000t, all-time record), July and December last year.

However, April was in fact an in-month record, beating the previous April high set back in 2015.

Significantly, last month did set an all-time grainfed beef export record for any month of 37,038t. Anecdotally, Australian feedlots are again near full, but a truer indication will come in the next week or two when the quarterly cattle numbers on feed survey is released for the March quarter.

Progressive calendar year to date export data shows Australia has already shipped 438,146t of chilled and frozen beef for the first four months of the year. That’s up almost 57,000t or 15pc on the same period last year, and comes despite a slow February-March caused by flooding and Port of Brisbane closures.

The United States took a mammoth 37,213t of Australian beef last month, as local manufacturing beef supply looks increasingly thin. Some of that may have represented stockpiling, ahead of the Trump tariff announcements, as a form of hedging insurance, trade sources said.

Calendar year to date, exports to the US have reached 129,291t, up almost 34,000t or 35pc on the same four months last year. The US has now been Australia’s largest export customer by volume for the past 18 months.

Trade into China last month lifted, but not out of context with other nearby Asian destinations like Japan and South Korea. China took 21,572t last month, up about 6.5pc on March, but 30pc higher than April last year. Year to date, exports to China are now at 78,116t, up 27pc on last year.

Sales into Japan last month reached 21,444t, just marginally below China volume. Japan’s volume was up 15pc on March, but was similar to April volume last year. For the year to date, Japanese volume is now at 76,084t, marginally behind China.

South Korea continued to buy strongly, accounting for 20,076t of Australian beef last month, up 23pc on March and 27pc higher than April last year. Four-month trade has reached 64,775t, up 15pc on the same period last year.