Market Morsel: Slowly killing time

Market Morsel

East coast weekly processing volumes for all red meat types remain under the average trend and below the levels seen during the same time in 2021.

Weekly cattle slaughter in Queensland and NSW are running at levels consistent with this time last year, but Victorian cattle slaughter is about 44% under the 2021 levels. The weak Victorian effort is keeping east coast volumes under the 2021 levels by about 8% with 91,429 head reported processed for the week ending on 18th February. Compared to the five-year average pattern current cattle slaughter volumes are nearly 29% below trend.

East coast lamb saw a recovery in slaughter in early February but volumes are back under the 2021 trend sitting 5% behind the volumes seen this time last season with 297,598 head of lamb reported processed. The five-year trend shows that we normally see about 350,000 head of lamb processed at this time of the year so current volumes are 15% under the average weekly seasonal pattern.

Sheep slaughter is lacklustre too with 93,619 head reported processed for the week ending on 18th February. This represents levels that are nearly 9% under the same week in 2021 and 22% below the five-year average pattern.