All the way with the USA
Beef Export Summary August 2024
The August 2024 beef export trade data showed a 6% decline in volumes over the month, but it was coming off very strong July volumes, so beef export volumes from Australia remain strong despite the small dip. Indeed, the August trade volumes of beef exports is the strongest August result on record.
There was 121,797 tonnes swt reported shipped offshore over August, which represents levels that are nearly 34% above the five-year average flows seen during August.
A summary of the top four beef trade destinations is outlined below:
USA – There was a 6% increase in Australian beef exports to the USA during August to see volumes peak for the 2024 season at 41,006 tonnes, making it the strongest August flows to the USA on record. October 2014 was this biggest monthly volumes to the USA when trade hit 47,238 tonnes so there is still time this year to see that record broken. Current flows of Aussie beef to the USA, compared to the August average, based on the last five-years of the trade, sit nearly 120% higher.
Japan – After a very strong half year of trade there was a 25% drop in flows to Japan over August. However, the decline was from reasonably high historic levels in July so there was only a slight dip below the five-year average pattern for August. There was 19,676 tonnes shipped to Japan, nearly 5% under the average August seasonal flows.
South Korea – There was also a mild downturn in beef flows to South Korea of 13% during August. Similarly to Japan the downturn was coming off a pretty high base in July and it wasn’t enough of a correction to push export volumes below the average seasonal trend. There was 17,675 tonnes of Aussie beef shipped to South Korea in August, representing levels that are 19% above the normal August flows based on the last five-year of the trade.
China – Beef trade to China was slightly lower over August to see 15,149 tonnes exported from Australia, nearly a 7% easing over the month. These levels are reasonable consistent with the August seasonal pattern, running just 9% below the five-year average flows usually seen in August.
