Swine fever boosts meat exports

China overtakes United States as biggest market for New Zealand beef

African swine fever has played a part in China overtaking the United States as the biggest market for New Zealand beef, the Meat Industry Association (MIA) said.

By volume, China accounted for 38 per cent of the beef trade compared

with 34 per cent for the US in the 12 months to June, MIA said.

In terms of value, proportions were similar — 36 per cent and 32 per cent, respectively.

The association’s chief executive, Tim Ritchie, said China had been the lead performer in the meat trade in the 12 months to June.

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

“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.”

Demand for New Zealand red meat in China had been growing before the disease arrived in Asia a year ago, but Ritchie said its onset had altered the world supply/demand dynamic.

“We have been lucky in the sense that there has been that buying demand for protein in recent years.

“Right now, with the impact of African swine fever in China, they are talking about potentially a 25 to 30 per cent cut in production, so that has to be extraordinarily significant given pork’s position as the biggest meat and with China representing about 50 per cent of the world’s pork market,” he told the Herald.

Exports of sheepmeat, beef and coproducts increased by 8 per cent to $8.8 billion for the year to June 2019, according to latest MIA analysis of export data. More than 399,470 tonnes of sheepmeat was dispatched, similar to 2018 volumes, but the value of these exports increased by 6 per cent.

Beef export volumes were up by 9 per cent to more than 453,202 tonnes with a 13 per cent increase in value.

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 weaker UK market in the past 12 months, with overall value down by 11 per cent reflected continuing uncertainty over Brexit.

China remained the largest market by value for red meat and coproducts with exports worth $319 million to the country in June, followed by the US and UK.

The volume of beef exports to Japan also increased by 10 per cent compared to June 2018.

Since the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) came into force, exports to Japan were up by 29 per cent by volume in the first half compared to the first half of last year. CPTPP, which binds Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam in a trade deal, was formed when the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a free trade agreement, fell through early last year.