By Neil Findlay, Agribusiness Customer Executive, National Australia Bank
This week over 400 delegates and beef industry leaders gathered at the Brisbane Showgrounds for BeefEx, held every two years.
This week over 400 delegates and beef industry leaders gathered at the Brisbane Showgrounds for BeefEx, held every two years.
With support from NAB Agribusiness, Texas-based economist David Williams presented detailed insights on beef production here and abroad. Mr Williams is the Senior Vice President and Director of Global Protein with Informa Economics, the largest agribusiness intelligence company in the world.
Mr Williams observed that the Australian beef industry is perfectly placed to seize the opportunities presented by changing consumer demands around the world.
Referencing a shift away from cheap, processed beef products by global food chains like McDonald’s, Mr Williams identified Australia’s opportunity as lying in our reputation as a producer of fresh, safe and healthy chilled beef product.
Acknowledging that while Australia may never get back to the high production levels of traditional, low price, grinding beef that we’ve seen in the past, he emphasised that we have a major opportunity in higher quality, segmented product for export.
Speaking on global demand for beef, Mr Williams noted that the strength of the industry, and particularly demand, was set to continue. The key lies in the fact that many key economies are experiencing growth periods, and as people get wealthier, they are eating more premium proteins, particularly beef.
Despite US herd rebuild figures slowing to less than 1 per cent (from about 2.5 per cent last year), overall fed beef production is expected to reach its highest level since 2002, and overall output is tipped to rise between 2019 and 2020 in the US.
For Australia, there are excellent growth opportunities throughout China, Japan and South-East Asia, driven mainly by or key competitive advantages of geographic proximity, exchange rates and a reputation for producing high quality, safe beef.
Several of our NAB Agribusiness team have been at BeefEx over the past couple of days, and it’s great to once again be supporting an event where so many producers and industry leaders come together.
Seasonally tough conditions and the extended drought have gripped much of the country. In this challenging environment, our focus is on providing support in areas that actually make a difference to producers, whether it be finance for livestock feed, equipment or interest reductions through Farm Management Deposit offsets.
It’s really important that we keep backing our producers now, so that they’re in prime position to jump on major industry opportunities like those highlighted by Mr Williams when the time comes.
Share Ag News Via