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The Indonesian government has confirmed Australian cattle industry fears in announcing that only 98,000 head of cattle will be imported from Australia for the remaining six months of 2012.
That action takes the total number of live cattle imports to 283,000 for this year, down from 410,000 last year.
Import permits were initially issued at an even 125,000 per quarter last year – but this year only 60,000 import permits were issued in the first quarter and 125,000 for the second six months of the year.
The Food and Agriculture organization (FAO) meat price index has continued to remain firm to date in 2012 as global meat supplies remain reasonably tight, according to Peter Duggan, with Strategic Information Services of Ireland’s Bord Bia.
However, some increase is anticipated in global supplies of pork, poultry and lamb/mutton over the remainder of 2012, with little change anticipated for beef.
Chinese beef companies descended on the eastern Australian city of Rockhampton recently with an eye toward buying Australian cattle stations and meat processing plants.
The Chinese visitors are interested in acquiring bulls, cows and genetic material to improve their beef herds in China, and Zenghong Li, an investor from the Modern Agricultural Development Co. of Yunnan province, is looking to buy several cattle properties in northern Australia.
The Chinese delegation was joined by other cattlemen and agricultural investors from Paraguay, Poland, Argentina, the U.S. and Brazil exploring investment options in the booming Australian beef cattle industry.
The chief executive of Brazil’s JBS SA, the world’s biggest beef producer, said the company is on the verge of exiting Argentina.
The reasons pivot largely around government restrictions and high labor costs. JBS’ Argentine subsidiary, Swift, has closed five of its six slaughterhouses in Argentina, the last one as recently as February. The remaining slaughterhouse in Rosario is the company’s largest in Argentina.
“We’ve been leaving Argentina over time,” JBS Chief Executive Wesley Batista said in a conference call to discuss fourth-quarter earnings.
With the momentum of several years of rapid growth, Indian beef and veal exports in 2012 are forecast to increase 16 percent in 2012 – to 1.275 million metric tons (MT) – says the USDA.
This would see India placed third on a list of the world’s largest beef exporters for 2012, behind Australia and Brazil and just ahead of the U.S.
India’s cattle herd in 2012 is expected to reach a massive 324.3 million head – a long way ahead of the next largest nation, Brazil (204 million head).
U.S. beef exports are muscling in on some of Australia’s key overseas markets and are predicted to break records when final calculations for 2011 are reported.
Figures collected by the USDA and U.S. Meat Export Federation show U.S. beef exports passed $5.4 billion last year.
And while Canada and Mexico are the biggest customers for U.S. beef, it is also making inroads into Japan and Korea – long-time strongholds for Aussie beef.
Low global supplies present Irish beef farmers with the opportunity to rapidly increase herd numbers and gain from higher prices.
The key to Ireland continuing to have a very strong hold in the British and European markets is to maintain and grow the national “suckler” (cow-calf) herd. Ireland’s reputation in its established markets means that increasing output will be met with high demand for Irish beef.
Australian beef producers will go into breeding overdrive in 2012, according to the latest national forecasts. Early reports suggest the national cattle herd will increase 5 percent by the end of this calendar year to 30.2 million head.
If that growth can be achieved, assuming favorable seasonal weather conditions persist across the country, it will put cattle numbers at a 34-year high.
Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez has ordered the immediate nationalization of the British agricultural company Agroflora – a subsidiary of Britain’s Vestey Group, which focuses on commercial beef production.
During a live broadcast from a state-controlled television channel, the Venezuelan president announced that the company’s nearly 500,000 acres of land would be expropriated and brought under “direct operational and administrative control” of the state through the Venezuelan Food Security and Sovereignty Law.
Beef consumption in Argentina registered in 2011 its lowest per capita total in 53 years, having dropped approximately 50 percent from 216 pounds in 1958 to 106 pounds last June, according to the Institute for the Promotion of Beef.
“One of the motives was the 2009 drought and the other that cattle breeding profits have plummeted.
Farmers turned over to soybean, which is far more rewarding,” said Gonzalo Alvarez Maldonado, IPCV president.
