Australian marketing group eyes big meat sales growth in Asia

The Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), a marketing arm of Australian red meat farmers, is projecting brisk sales and high consumption growth rates for red meat in South Asian economies, particularly the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China.

As their economies grew stronger, South Asian consumers increased their per capita consumption of beef and lamb. In Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan, for instance, per capita intake of beef is three kilos. The Philippines buys 70,000 tons of meat a year, or way below the per capita consumption of its neighbors.

The beef industry of Australia sells A$5. 5 billion worth of beef annually comprising 60 percent of the total sales of livestock industry. Its number one customer is Japan which buys 400,000 tons or 20 percent of the total followed by the United States with 350,000 tons, the rest goes to Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

Timothy L. Kelf, regional manager of MLA for South Asia, told The STAR that even its traditional markets like the United States (herself a major producer of beef but is importing around 250,000 tons yearly of meat from Australia because of its huge requirement) and Japan are increasing their purchase of red meat from Down Under because of its quality and hygienic practices that spared Australian farms from the onslaught of bovine spongiform encelopathy (BSE or mad cow) and foot and mouth disease (FMD) that struck many European livestock farms. The per capita intake of beef is 36 kilos per year while that of Canada, 32 kilos.

MLA (a 200-strong organization funded by A$100-million annual levy from livestock farmers in Australia) is embarking on an aggressive sales pitch for its lamb and goats following the good name it has earned for its cattle and beef products all over the world, he said.

Only last Monday, the MLA sponsored the Manila Black Box Culinary Challenge 2000-2002 at the Mandarin Hotel, where it sought to promote lamb in fine dining cuisine, using the hardest and toughest lamb parts for the eight participating establishments, which included the Culinary Center for Asia. This contest has been held in the Asian region since 1996, with the first regional contest held in Singapore in April 2000.

MLA’s 2000-2001 annual report placed the annual beef, sheep meat and live exports at over $7 billion. It added that Australian beef now enjoys a 48 percent share of the Japanese market, much of it coming from the top end of the market.

Demand for chilled beef cuts to the US, it said, has also grown rapidly and its exports of lamb to the US continue to grow despite the tariffs and quotas with value of live exports reaching levels, the MLA said.

Beginning February, the MLA in cooperation with 20 hotels, restaurants and retail outlets, will be holding a month-long lamb festival billed "Lamb is a Many Splendored Thing" in honor of the month of hearts. The festival dishes specially-created by the chefs of each participating restaurant is designed to make consumers fall in love with lamb, Kelf said.

Europe with its 220 million population is a major market of Australian beef but its strict quota has limited importation only to 8,400 tons of lamb meat only, Kelf said.

Lamb is being pushed as a rich source of essential nutrients comparable to other protein sources providing B group vitamins (including niacin, thiamine and riboflavin), and more importantly, iron and when trimmed of all visible fat, low cholesterol and less calories. The lamb population in Australia is 373,000 head.

Even with the rapid growth of fast food chains and instant food (like noodles etc.), Kelf is optimistic that beef and lamb consumption will even increase faster since, these will become vital ingredients to these food preparations.

In 1976, when the Australian livestock industry reached its peak, the cattle population reached a high of 33 million head ( as against the US’s cattle population of over 200 million head) but in 2000, the cattle population reached 227,000 head of which US buys 12 million tons while China gets 3.5 to 4.5 million tons a year, Kelf said.