On The Land
5 December, 2024
South-East Asia’s growing appetite for Australian beef
AUSTRALIA has the opportunity to cement itself as one of the key beef suppliers into South-East Asian markets – as the appetite for beef continues to grow among the region’s consumers, according to agribusiness specialist Rabobank.
In its just-released report, “Growth opportunities in South-East Asia for Australian Beef”, the bank said there was an expectation the South-East Asian region would continue to experience growth in beef consumption – in the order of 2-3% per annum over the next five years – and imports will be needed to meet the majority of this growth.
Report author, RaboResearch senior animal proteins analyst Angus Gidley-Baird said a large population base and increasing wealth in key South-East Asian markets – including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam – presented an opportunity for Australian beef to position itself as a high quality but value focused supplier for consumers through foodservice and grocery channels.
Mr Gidley-Baird said geographic proximity, trade agreements and product offering gave Australia a strong advantage in supplying countries in the region.
“Leveraging this advantage and further developing relationships and business partnerships as well as working to meet their product needs can help Australia capture future growth opportunities,” he said.
“And realising this opportunity will also support the ongoing growth of the Australian beef industry in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.”
South-East Asia represents the fifth largest export market for Australian beef, according to Mr Gidley- Baird said, taking approximately 10% of the country’s exported beef volume and value in 2023.
“Beef is one of the lesser-consumed proteins across South-East Asia,” Mr Gidley-Baird said.
In all countries, except Indonesia, beef sits behind pork, poultry and seafood on a per capita consumption basis and generally represents no more than 6% of the total (including seafood) protein consumption.
The Rabobank report said that in relation to volume, Vietnam was projected to see the largest increase in consumption (up 152,000 tonnes) with Indonesia the second largest (up 97,000 tonnes) over the next five years.
“Beef retail sales volumes and values have been increasing at a healthy rate across the region,” the report said.
Mr Gidley-Baird said in many of the South-East Asian countries, formal retail sales channels were less developed and wet markets still played a very important role in food distribution, with wet markets believed to make up a large proportion of bovine product sales.
He said retail sales data reflected sales through formal channels (as reported by established retail outlets), rather than sales through wet markets.
“While we believe wet markets will continue to have a role in these economies, the growth in retail sales illustrates an increasing presence of beef in more formal food sales channels, providing opportunities for importers of bovine products,” he said.
Mr Gidley-Baird said in that the past five years, beef retail sales volumes (in South-East Asia) had increased by 4% per year, and sales values have risen by 12% per year.
