We’re not kidding
The Snapshot
- Australia produces less than 1% of the world’s goat meat. However, on a value basis it is the world’s largest goat meat exporter, supplying 36% of the global export market share of goat meat.
- The USA is the primary importer of goat meat. In 2020 Australian goat meat exports to the USA accounted for nearly 90% of American imports of goat meat.
- Goat meat production is dominated by Victoria and Queensland, with 80% of the annual production coming from these two states.
- In 2020 Victorian goat slaughter accounted for 50% of the national tally. Meanwhile, Queensland goat slaughter market share sat at 28%.
The Detail
Australia is a relatively small producer of goat meat on the global scale, accounting for less than 1% of the world’s production. Australia sits well behind the goat meat producing super powers of China, India and Pakistan who produce 38%, 9% and 8% of the globe’s goat meat, respectively.
However, despite being a relatively small scale producer, Australia’s small population and limited domestic consumption of goat meat means that there is significant goat meat export volumes to supply offshore markets. Indeed, on a export value basis Australian goat meat supply accounts for 36% of the global trade, eclipsing second place Ethiopia on 32% and well ahead of Kenya in third place.
The global export picture for goat meat is similar to the situation for sheep meat, in that there really is only two major suppliers to the world. In the sheep meat space, Australia competes with New Zealand to supply around 70% of the world’s sheep meat supply, when both nations export volumes are combined.
Analysis of the top goat meat importing nations highlight that the USA is the number one importer of goat meat. Australia almost exclusively supplies goat meat to the USA. In 2020, the Australian proportion of US goat meat imports accounted for 87% of the trade flow. So, not only does Australia dominate the world trade it also has one of the key importing nations well serviced. From an Australian perspective the USA accounts for 60-65% of Aussie goat meat exports.
Within Australia the production of goat meat is dominated by Victoria and Queensland. Through the late 1990s and early 2000s Western Australia was a key contributor to the nation’s goat meat production but their proportion of total supply have waned since 2010.
Victorian production levels began to increase steadily from 2010 and the severe drought impacting Queensland during the 2014-16 period saw elevated goat turnoff and high slaughter/production levels such that the supply of goat meat from Queensland had declined substantially by 2017.
Since 2015 Victoria has accounted for more than 50% of Australia’s goat meat production. Queensland had been providing 30-40% of the nations goat meat up until the 2014-2016 period. The drought saw Queensland’s slaughter volumes drop to nearly 20% by 2017. However in recent years Queensland has managed to move their goat production and slaughter volumes back nearer to 30% of the national supply.
