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.
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 focussed 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, Mr Gidley-Baird said, taking about 10 per cent 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 six per cent of the total (including seafood) protein consumption.
The Rabobank report said in 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.
Rabobank expected domestic beef production growth in South-East Asia would be limited, largely due to land resource and capital constraints.
“The bulk of bovine product imported into the South-East Asian region is derived from three main suppliers,” Mr Gidley-Baird said.
“In 2022, India and Australia made up the majority (at 53 per cent and 18 per cent respectively) and recently Brazil has increased its volumes (to 13 per cent). The US is the next largest supplier at a much smaller six per cent of the market.”
The report said Australia’s current exported cuts to South-East Asian markets and the origin of exports reflected this lower price point market.
Brisket and “manufacturing cuts” were the predominant exported cuts from Australia to these markets, Mr Gidley-Baird said, with some also taking larger volumes of knuckle (Indonesia, Vietnam), shin/shank (Vietnam) and chuck roll (Thailand).
“Queensland, with their higher bos indicus-content beef and Victoria with a higher cow kill are the major exporters to the South-East Asia region, comprising 51 per cent and 31 per cent respectively of Australia’s total exports in the 2023-24 year.”
Mr Gidley-Baird said beef consumption was expected to gradually increase in the South-East Asian region, presenting opportunities for the Australian beef industry.
Increases in wealth, improvements in cold chains, urbanisation and westernisation of diets are all expected to shape the consumption volumes of the future.
