Dwell cattle export numbers for the year-to-July are trending equally to final 12 months, sitting at simply 2% decrease. A slower July has impacted this, with first-half (January-June) figures 11% greater year-on-year. Simply shy of 65,000 head had been exported in July, with numbers for that specific month solely being decrease twice previously decade. Totals for 2025 at the moment are at about 6% under the five-year common for a similar interval. The 2024-25 monetary 12 months completed strongly, rising by 4% and hitting the very best FY determine since 2020-21.
Indonesian market share of Australian stay export has held agency at 69%, and cattle numbers for the January-July interval have elevated by 3% year-on-year. They’re additionally monitoring at 17% above the five-year common, and now we have to return to 2020 to search out greater export numbers to Indonesia for a similar interval. Whereas a overwhelming majority of stay cattle offered to Indonesia are destined for feedlots, this 12 months has seen practically 8000 head of breeder cattle exported there as nicely. That is the primary time any vital variety of breeders has been traded in that market since 2018, in line with Meat & Livestock Australia.
It included about 1500 dairy cows exported in June as a part of the Indonesian authorities’s push to enhance home meals safety, in addition to assist its free nutritious meals for schoolchildren program. Indonesia has additionally now eliminated quota restrictions on Australian cattle imports. Whereas it will have little impression on precise commerce – the 2025 quota being nicely above the variety of cattle Australia has traditionally despatched/is more likely to promote this 12 months, and the Indonesian authorities nonetheless needing to subject permits to their importers – it’s one other sign of assist. Additionally to be famous, nonetheless, is Indonesia’s current opening up of the stay cattle commerce with each Brazil and New Zealand, including competitors.
Australia’s second-largest stay cattle market stays in Vietnam, the place commerce has fallen by 20% to date this 12 months, and sits practically 40% under the five-year-average. The commerce is predominantly made up of slaughter cattle, and has struggled to rebound constantly since Covid, with 2025 year-to-date figures 68% under what they had been in the identical interval in 2020, and present market share 14% in comparison with 28%.
Israel, unsurprisingly, has gone from having an 11% market share of Australian cattle exports in 2023 to holding simply 1.5% now. This stated, shipments to the nation are at present 57% above the entire 2024 quantity, all of which have been feeder cattle. China has additionally been on the decline this 12 months, with year-to-date numbers lower than half the identical interval in 2024, and the bottom they’ve been since 2015.
