Australian beef exporters banking on China

SYDNEY - Australian beef farmers have a serious stake in China's growing appetite for steak, and, according to the latest research, there will be opportunities, if the sector understands its customer, until the proverbial cows come home.

As the mining and resources party gutters out, Australian economists have been banking on agricultural resources to fill the void.

Buillish on beef

If the booming Aussie beef sector wasn't certain of its impressive bull run, the reproach report released Friday by the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) will turn the remaining skeptics into true believers.

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ANZ's report of China's Great Beef Challenge, A Golden Opportunity for the Australian Beef Sector, says China's hunger for beef could see consumption rise by 70 percent in just 15 years.

According to the ANZ report, which is a top-to-toe study of the opportunities as well as the challenges, the Australian beef sector will need to meet to "maintain current market share until 2030," could represent growth of A$10 billion ($9.3 billion) per annum to the Australian economy.

Australian Agriculture resources have been long tipped to take off where mineral resources began almost a decade ago, with a China-inspired boom for Australian producers, who currently supply just under 60 percent of China's beef imports.

Both sides of the political landscape have been gleefully referring to Australia as the food bowl of Asia in anticipation of growing demand as Asia's middle class expands at breakneck pace.

However, while the ANZ, with its own toehold in the China market, has a clear interest in reaffirming the importance of Asia, and particularly China, to local beef producers, the state of play is very different.

Stay calm and carry on

Australia's Minister for Agriculture Barnaby Joyce is one of the few voices in the Australian industry calling for less bombast and more pragmatism.

"We're not going to be the food basket of Asia," he said in May after returning from Prime Minister Tony Abbott's official delegation to Asia.

"We've got to dispense with that rhetoric. It's ridiculous. It is read as a threat (to farmers) overseas."

"Even in China, I think their beef herd is about eight times the size of ours, so let's stop talking about that."

Joyce said, "I'm trying to return it back to logic."

And logic shows that China is very much in the backseat as local beef exports hit record highs last month.

The Department of Agriculture's data for August showing beef and veal exports topped 111,872 tons, following a 24 month upward trend and 15 percent up on the same period last year.

While falling short of the all-time high registered just a month earlier, July reported exports were over 121,520 tons, the August yield still represents the second highest month of beef and veal exports on record.

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