New figures portray a meat industry stumbling because of China’s faltering economy.
The figures come from the Meat Industry Association (MIA), and show overall red meat exports down 5% for the first quarter of 2024, compared with the same period a year ago.
The total value for the quarter was $2.58 billion, the lowest since 2018.
A large fall in sales to China of 27% was shared by a fall of 30% for South Korea, and this more than cancelled out gains in other markets, most notably North America, according to the MIA chief executive Sirma Karapeeva.
Exports to the US were up by 11 %, to the UK, 44% and Japan 26%.
Karapeeva points out that lower prices took their toll. For example, sheepmeat export volumes were up 3%, but because prices were lower, actual value fell 5%. The effect was less severe with beef, where volumes rose 2% while value stayed steady.
She adds there was a silver lining to all this, with chilled exports of both beef and sheepmeat rising in both volume and value, in contrast with frozen product.
“Although chilled sheepmeat volumes are still below pre-pandemic levels, it is encouraging to see some recovery, while chilled beef exports have largely recovered,” Karapeeva says.
“The high-value chilled meat offering is largely as a result of innovation and research and development in processing and packaging, which is providing a longer product shelf life.
“While this is still a small volume compared to frozen exports, it reflects the work New Zealand processors and exporters are doing to create value add products and to meet changing market demands.”
21 Comments
Gee Elmo, that's a really wacko take on reality. The greens must have enormous influence to be able to crush the Chinese economy?
Perhaps your industrialist mates working on destruction of naturally farmed product with lab meat, lab milk and synthetic foods produced with precision fermentation are the real threat to a collapse of NZ farming? I would mention climate instability caused by human greenhouse gas pollution, but something tells me you're into denial?
Perhaps carbon farming will ultimately be the ONLY enterprise the makes rural living viable? Be careful what you whine about!
It’s more than price movements. It’s market reality. Beef is holding up because the returns are dominated by frozen manufacturing beef. Grinding meat for the gigantic North America burger market. It is needed to add leanness to the domestic grain fed equivalent. It is now as a product virtually a by product of dairying. Cow fore’s & hinds & bull. Easy and cost effective to produce, package, store and ship. Sheepmeat is small unit processing and has been carried largely by the development of excellent chilled cuts. However those cuts are less than 40% of the carcass and packaging to ready retail and/or white table from a good distance is expensive and constrained by shelf life which all carry equivalent risk. As said on another post it is a strategy geared for the best of times but don’t work too well in the worst of times. Right now the lower priced commodity product is beneficial because it caters to the bulk of the consumers who are low earners and of course that percentage will always grow when society has less to spend.
Like the Grassland area that fell 942,000 ha between 2011 to 2023 - 19% went to trees - what caused the other 81% to disappear? Need to focus on the real issues at play rather than a strawman. Until people get honest about the real problems it will just continue on happening.
Great news for locals, we get the export quality cuts at the supermarket at discounted prices. Its rare we get the good stuff and pure luck if you happen to be shopping at the time. Great mini lamb roasts a few weeks back at pack n save for $9 each must have lasted just the day and I should have stocked the freezer.
NZ is probably pricing itself out of its markets - thanks to increasing regulatory and climate costs being loaded on farmers. The USA seems to be doing fine in picking up the slack ...
"December beef exports to leading market South Korea remained lower than a year ago in volume at 23,327 mt, down 4%. However, export value climbed to the highest in 18 months to $220.6 million. For 2023, exports to Korea fell 16% below the 2022 record but still reached $2.13 billion. That marks the third consecutive year exports topped $2 billion. The U.S. imports to South Korea captured a record 68% of their total imports in 2023."
Whiskey and carbon scamming the only businesses to be in.
At 30 June 2023, the number of:
- beef cattle was 3.7 million, down 4 percent from 2022
- sheep was 24.4 million, down 3 percent from 2022
- dairy cattle was 5.9 million, down 1 percent from 2022
- deer was 742,000, down 7 percent from 2022.
During the year ended 30 June 2023, the area of:
- wheat harvested was 40,500 hectares, a decrease of 6 percent from 2022
- barley harvested was 50,100 hectares, an increase of 4 percent from 2022.
There was a total of 1.8 million hectares of forestry land at 30 June 2023, an increase of 2 percent (34,000 hectares) from the previous year.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/agricultural-production-…
Well I know it’s not trees or carbon as that’s accounted for @19%, probably some hort and a bit of urban sprawl. The bulk I would say is land left to revert to native due to the economics of farming. The focus should be how we can help farmers become profitable, through any avenue, to stop the decline and keep people on the land or else the CCC will get their native by default.
Stats don't appear to be very consistent. Perhaps we need to hire more public servants?!
"The area of exotic grassland decreased by 247,848 hectares (or 2 percent) between 1996 and 2008 and then increased by 68,274 hectares through to 2018." (2021)
"From 2011 to 2023, the total area in grassland (excluding tussock) fell by 12 percent (942,000 hectares)" (2024)
Farms aren't going to become profitable by artificially hiking up land prices with bullshit carbon markets and adding $15/tank to every ute fueling. Farming shouldn't be thrown on the pyre so the taxpayer can own an airline.
-Ag is excluded from Paris.
-Paris is non-binding
-NZ is a CO2 sink
-our herd is not adding to the global warming hypothesis.
"However, climate scientist Kevin Trenberth questions the scientific basis for stringent methane reduction goals and has challenged the widely held belief that these emissions significantly contribute to global warming.
“The issue is that methane is so short lived that, in fact, NZ is already at “net zero” (with regards to) methane. The numbers of livestock have been stable enough since 2010 so the amounts emitted are completely compensated by the amounts oxidised to carbon dioxide.
“Since the methane started out as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere before being taken up in grass, and then eaten by livestock, the process is circular. The main issues with methane are fossil methane from mining operations,” he says.
https://www.stats.govt.nz/indicators/exotic-land-cover
https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/grassland-reduction-results-in-declining…
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