SHEEP meat and beef exporters have recorded substantial growth in the use of airfreight as a means of moving product in recent years.
Beef exports by air have grown by 42 percent in the past five years (comparing the full 2018 and 2014 calendar years), while sheep meat exports by air have risen 45pc over the same period.
Department of Agriculture export figures show beef exports by air last calendar year reached a record 26,454 tonnes. China accounted for easily the largest portion of that at 14,828t, followed by the Middle East (4429t) and Korea (1713t). Other smaller beef air shipment volumes went to Japan, Taiwan, US, the EU and western Europe.
About half of the air shipments by volume last year came out of Queensland (8700t) followed by NSW and Victoria, both around 5300t for the year.
Back in 2014, total beef exports by air out of Australia totalled 18,600t – almost 8000t less than they were last year.
For the 2019 year to the end of July, growth has followed a similar pattern. Airfreight exports of beef for the first seven months this year have totalled almost 16,000t, compared with 14,900t for the same period last year and 12.700t the year before that.
It’s a similar story for lamb and mutton, both of which have grown in their reliance on air freight since 2014. In fact trade access issues (discussed below) have seen lamb exports shipped by air grow to almost 24pc of Australia’s total lamb export trade last year.
Air freight accounted for 63,208t of lamb exports in 2018, out of a total export figure of just over 267,000t. The airfreight lamb volume was up almost 17,000t compared with the 2014 year. Not unexpectedly, lower-value mutton exports by air were less significant, reaching 8526t last year, out of a total of almost 180,000t.
The Middle East remained the dominant destination for airfreight shipments of both lamb and mutton last year, taking more than 56,000t of lamb and 8000t of mutton. China and the US were smaller destinations.
Victoria was the departure point for more than half of last year’s lamb airfreight shipments (just short of 35,000t), followed by WA (13,000t) and NSW (11,000t).
Red meat exporters spoken to for this report suggest there are a number of reasons for the growth in air freight for red meat shipments:
- Challenges surrounding the Middle East’s unusually severe shelf-life requirements on chilled beef and lamb was a common response. While many other customer importing countries apply 120-day (or longer) shelf-life on Australian chilled product, large parts of the Middle East apply a limit of 70 days on popular loin cuts. This provides very little room to move with product on arrival, after it has already spent 40-45 days in transit by sea. This adds to the attractiveness of the airfreight option, despite higher cost. This topic is discussed in greater detail in this earlier Beef Central story.
- A trend in some markets, like China, towards a ‘just-in-time’ supply strategy, to avoid shortfalls and cost in local cold storage infrastructure. Often cold storage for large, but less frequent supply using sea-freight is expensive, while much smaller, more frequent shipments by air require much less space. More Australian product being exported in ‘retail-ready’ form, rather than traditional whole-muscle chilled primals, is also contributing to this trend, one exporter said.
- Better and more frequent international air services out of Australia into emerging red meat markets like China and the Middle East.
- The establishment of regional international airport ‘hubs’ like Toowoomba’s Wellcamp, which can ship direct into international centres like Shanghai and Hong Kong from nearby export processing facilities.
Sheep meat growth
Evolving demand, shifting flight paths and changing production systems have underpinned an air-freight sheep meat boom to the Middle East over the last decade, MLA reported in a recent study.
As a region, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) was Australia’s highest value sheep meat export market in 2018, injecting more money (A$859 million) into the Australian sheep meat industry than the US (A$823 million) or China (A$678 million).
A market where fresh is king
Traditionally Australia’s principal live sheep export market, consumers and regulators across MENA have a strict preference for freshly slaughtered product, stemming from the short shelf life of locally processed meat in high temperature climates. However, amid growing demand for meat protein and natural resource constraints across the region, MENA increasingly relies on imported sheep and sheep meat.
Australian live sheep exports shrunk from 4.21 million head in 2008 to 1.89 million head in 2017 (2018 contracted even further due to the temporary cessation) and have become increasingly WA-centric, as the prevalence of the once-dominant Merino wether has receded. That shift has created significant challenges in meeting demand in a market where ‘fresh is king’.
While some demand can be met by frozen product, MENA represents Australia’s largest chilled sheep meat export market (62pc of exports to MENA were chilled in 2018, compared to 15pc across all other markets). However, supplying large volumes of chilled sheep meat within strict shelf life thresholds becomes a logistical challenge through slower sea-freight channels. Hence, the rise of the MENA in air-freight trade.
Flight paths unlock opportunity
Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha are the focal points of air traffic across the region and all have been host to significant airport expansion over the last decade, luring increasing flights from Australia. As highlighted below, the number of direct flights from Australia through the three hubs increased four-fold between 2008 and 2018.
Dubai International Airport invested heavily and led the expansion, luring Qantas Europe-bound flights away from the Singapore stopover from 2013-2017. More recently, Abu Dhabi and Doha have followed suit and expanded traffic.
Chilled sheepmeat has been the single greatest export beneficiary of this air-traffic expansion. In fact, sheep meat, mostly in carcase form, accounted for an estimated 68pc of all outbound Australian air-freight volume to MENA in 2018. Sheep meat racked up so many frequent flyers last year that the air-freight trade to MENA, for the first time, surpassed sea-freight on a volume and value basis.
Air-freight has also unlocked new sheep meat opportunities in the region. While the UAE and Qatar – host of the three main airports – are the primary markets, Kuwait, Jordan and Iran have also opened up as air-freight can stopover in one of the main centres and be freighted back out to other regional airports.
In 2018, air-freight sheep meat exports to MENA were worth A$476 million, almost more than sea-freight (A$382 million) and live (A$107 million) combined. The temporary sheep export trade cessation in 2018 saw an almost one-for-one increase in air-freight carcase exports to Qatar, Australia’s largest live export market. However, other live export destinations were less willing or able to switch across, notably Kuwait and Oman. Iran, which opened up in 2017, accounted for the bulk of remaining air-freight trade growth to the region.
Trade sensitive to flight diversion and capped by capacity
However, past trends in trade dynamics to MENA are not a guarantor of future ones.
Firstly, the sheep export cessation in 2018 did not lead to a pathway switch for those same, predominantly WA, animals. The bulk of air-freight carcase exports are light lambs, whereas live exports are predominantly mature-weight Merino wethers. Perth did record increased air-freight carcase exports (up 19pc or 2,400 tonnes year-on-year) in 2018 but the bulk of growth was driven by east coast airports (up 30% or 10,200 tonnes). The eastern states drought-induced flock reduction will hinder supply growth in coming years and light lambs may become particularly sought after if producers look to rebuild depleted numbers.
Secondly, spare airline capacity remains a significant issue for expansion. As highlighted below, Melbourne is the primary source of most air-freight but is hamstring by available capacity. Other centres have some capacity but sheep meat must still compete with other products for space. While Perth has room to increase air-freight carcase exports, it would need to increase total air-freight three-fold to accommodate the entire turnoff currently channelled through the live trade.
Lastly, the existing trade remains vulnerable to changing flight paths. For instance, Qantas switching the Europe-bound stopover back to Singapore last year offset the growth in other carriers flying through Dubai – meanwhile, air-freight exports to the UAE have effectively flat lined over the last three years. Other potential disruptions could stem from Istanbul’s ambitious new mega airport diverting traffic away from the Arabian Gulf (however, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha all have expansion plans of their own) or if the rise of the long haul flights continues.
Moreover, a slump in the oil price could hurt the air-freight sheepmeat trade two-fold: it would hit demand in the oil-producing Arabian Gulf, and make jet fuel cheaper and long-haul flights, bypassing Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha, more profitable.
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