China the lead market for NZ meat exports

China remains the single largest red meat market for New Zealand.

Exports of sheep, beef and coproducts increased by 8 per cent to $8.8 billion in the year to June 2019, according to the latest analysis from the Meat Industry Association (MIA).

Almost 400,000 tonnes of sheep meat was dispatched, which was similar to 2018 volumes, but the value of these exports increased by 6 per cent.

MIA chief executive Tim Ritchie said China had been the lead performer in the past 12 months and in the month of June was worth $319 million to our economy followed by the US and the UK.

‘‘China has taken more than half of New Zealand’s sheepmeat exports and beef exports have increased 79 per cent by volume, overtaking the US as our largest beef market.

‘‘It’s also very pleasing to see we’re getting more bang for our buck off sheepmeat exports with value up 6 per cent on last year despite volumes remaining the same,’’ Ritchie said.

For beef, export volumes were up 9 per cent to more than 453,202 tonnes with a 13 per cent increase in value while coproducts exports increased by 5 per cent.

For the month of June, beef exports to China increased to more than 25,000 tonnes, more than the annual exports to Taiwan, Japan or Korea.

The volume of beef exports to Japan also increased 10 per cent to June 2019.

For the first half of this year, since The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for TransPacific Partnership (CPTPP) came into force, exports to Japan were up 29 per cent by volume compared to the first half of last year.