Goats all go for exporters
GOATMEAT exports hit a record $257 million in 2017, with the value increasing 28 per cent year on year.
According to Meat and Livestock Australia’s latest global snapshot, domestic goat prices remain historically high despite having fallen 30 per cent since last July.
The over-the-hooks indicator currently sits at 483c/kg carcass weight, down from the peak of 683c/kg last winter, but well above prices received before 2016.
Goatmeat production hit 31,000 tonnes carcass weight last year, with slaughter increasing to 2.07 million goats.
Of this, 28,000 tonnes was exported, an increase of just 6 per cent year on year, despite the big jump in value.
The United States continues to be Australia’s biggest goatmeat market, taking 66 per cent of exports last year.
Nearly all of the imported goatmeat into the US came from Australia.
Australia is also Canada’s main goatmeat supplier, but New Zealand exports to Canada more than doubled year on year in 2017, posing strong competition, MLA said.
“Malaysia is Australia’s primary market for live goats and the value of the trade fell significantly throughout the year, equating to a mere 1 per cent of combined meat and live export value in 2017,” MLA’s snapshot said.
“Between 2015 and 2017, the number of live goats shipped has fallen 87 per cent to 12,200.”
There is no import tariff for Australian goatmeat entering the US and Canada or other important goatmeat markets such as Trinidad and Tobago and Malaysia.
Australia’s third-biggest goatmeat market, Taiwan, has a tariff of about 15 per cent.
South Korea is the fourth biggest market for Australian exports. Its tariffs are currently 11.2 per cent, but are to fall to 9 per cent next year, and disappear entirely by 2023 under Australia’s free-trade agreement.