24-05-2025
Trump's trade war puts Australian beef centre stage in Shanghai
At one of the world's largest food trade shows in Shanghai this week, Australia's beef industry was having a moment.
Beef exports to China have been surging this year and according to Meat and Livestock Australia's regional manager for greater China Murray Davis, the orders for grain-fed beef are running hot.
"Australia is absolutely centre stage [here in China] and we are dominating the premium end of the beef market," he said.
"Our major competitor over the last few years has been the United States, but with the trade disputes between China and the US, the US is effectively out of the market at the moment.
While the US and China have walked back from the trade war precipice in recent weeks with a 90-day pause on tariffs, Mr Davis said the friction between the two nations was on show at the SIAL food trade show in Shanghai.
"Our pavilion at SIAL, we had 300 square metres of space and we were swamped with buyers the whole time," he said.
"Right next to it was the United States pavilion which was very quiet, very subdued, and most of the US exhibitors didn't send people over from the United States.
Mr Davis, who is based in Shanghai, said the fundamentals for Australia's beef trade with China were strong.
"There are some economic headwinds here, in that consumer sentiment is a little bit subdued, the stock market is down, property prices are down, but it still remains a 200,000-tonne-a-year [beef] market for us," he said.
"I think no matter what, it's going to remain a very significant market for us in the future."
Meanwhile, Australia's largest cattle company's financial year results, released this week, included plenty of green shoots.
Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) posted an operating profit of $58.4 million, up 14 per cent year-on-year and its total revenue increased 15 per cent to $389.9 million.
Chief executive David Harris said it was a positive outcome during a period of global uncertainty.
He said despite Trump's 10 per cent tariff, North America remained AACo's second-biggest market for its branded beef.
"Business has been good [with the United States]," he said.
"There is no doubting there's been lots of conversations between importers, distributors, customers and ourselves in relation to the tariff.
Mr Harris said while AACo did export some beef to China, it was not a major customer for its brands.
"We're not over-leveraged into China, but because it moves volumes of beef out of other markets, that certainly helps us in other global markets."
Australia is on track to produce a record amount of beef in 2025.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) this week showed 2.2 million head of cattle were killed in the first quarter of 2025, up an incredible 20 per cent on the same period last year.
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