PNG on a lamb buying spree

The Detail

Papua New Guinea (PNG) continues to demonstrate strong demand for Aussie lamb in February, lifting to the third top destination in 2022 at 8.4% of the market share of total lamb exports. This growth in demand from PNG is already coming off strong flows seen in January. The Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment (DAWE) trade figures released today highlight that PNG saw a 21% increase in lamb imports from Australia taking the February total to 1,738 tonnes swt. This represents levels that are 68% higher than the five-year average for February.

The USA and China are ahead of PNG in terms of market share of Australian lamb exports and both nations saw a gain in demand over February. Aussie lamb exports to the USA climbed 11% over February to see 5,339 tonnes consigned. Despite this lift, lamb exports from Australia to the USA are running nearly 8% below the average trend seen over the last five years.

Lamb exports to China were up by 46% on the January levels with 3,919 tonnes noted for February. As was the case with the USA, the strong recovery in volumes over February to China wasn’t enough to get the monthly trade volumes back above the five-year average for February with levels running 13% under the seasonal trend.

In terms of total lamb exports, February saw 20,774 tonnes exported offshore from Australia. This is nearly a 22% lift from levels seen at the start of 2022 and are about 9% under the average seasonal pattern for February, according to the five-year trend.