New Zealand red-meat exports: Global market challenges reflected in lowest January result since 2019

Meat Industry Association chief executive Sirma Karapeeva says challenges remain for New Zealand red-meat exporters.

New Zealand’s red-meat sector exported products to the value of $759 million in January 2024, according to an analysis by the Meat Industry Association.

The association’s chief executive Sirma Karapeeva said the results, down 8 per cent on January 2023, reflected the ongoing volatility in global markets.

“Clearly, challenges remain for our red-meat exporters,” Karapeeva said.

“This was the lowest January result since 2019.”

She said the main contributor to the drop was China, with exports down 21 per cent year-on-year to $263m.

However, overall exports to the United States were up 10 per cent to $182m and the United Kingdom by 34 per cent to $38m, she said.

The volume of chilled sheepmeat exports also increased by 48 per cent overall, to 4311 tonnes.

“While this reflects a recovery from low levels of chilled exports in the last two January periods, it is positive given the logistics disruptions of recent months,” Karapeeva said.

Overall, volumes of sheepmeat and beef exports were relatively unchanged compared to last January but the value of sheepmeat exports fell 9 per cent to $305m and beef by 6 per cent to $320m.

This reflected the influence of China on overall export values.

Exports to China fell both by volume and value, with the free-on-board (FoB) value of sheepmeat down by $1.45/kg to $5.07/kg and beef by $0.99/kg to $7.28/kg.

Sheepmeat exports to the US rose 16 per cent to $45m and beef exports by 12 per cent to $120m.

Beef exports to the UK also continue to grow, from $588,000 last January to over $2m, off the back of the UK Free Trade Agreement that came into effect in May 2023.

Sheepmeat accounted for most of the increase in exports to the UK, recovering from the low levels of January 2023.

Fifth quarter exports remained steady at $133m.