Market Morsel: What’s for dinner?

Market Morsel

Over the last few decades the per capita domestic consumption of red meat in Australia has been in decline, with chicken and pork gaining favour.

• Since 2000 beef consumption has dropped 41% from 37.5 kg per annum per person to just 22.0 kg in 2020.
• Sheep meat consumption has shown a similar decline, off 48% from 12.5 kg per person per year in 2000 to just 6.5 kg in 2020.
• Chicken consumption is up 50% from 31.1 kg in 2000 to 46.9kg in 2020. Meanwhile, pork consumption has gained 35% from 19.6 kg to 26.5 kg over the same time period.

Thankfully, for the red meat producer our diverse and growing export markets have taken up the slack in domestic red meat consumption. Since 2015 annual domestic beef consumption in Australia has averaged 635,000 tonnes per annum, while our beef exports have averaged 1,640,000 tonnes. Local consumption of beef accounts for around 28% of production.

Sheep meat markets show a similar favouring toward the export sector with average annual domestic consumption at 205,000 tonnes and export volumes averaging 495,000 tonnes per year since 2015. This places the local consumption of sheep meat at around 30% of our production.