The EU, the US, Canada, China, Japan and Mexico are key players in the global pork meat supply and trade. The Australian pork industry does not play an important role in the pork global trade, as this industry is relatively small, which difficult the local and international competition.

The Australian pig and sow herd had a continuous growth until the start of the 2000s, where the high feed costs and restructuration of the sector lead to record shrinks. In the recent years, the herd has stabilized around 2.4 million pigs, 265000 sows and 1500 farmers.

Distribution of the pig herd across the country is relatively even. Queensland (QLD) and Victoria (VIC) are the states that have the largest pig herds, accounting for 27% and 24% of the total Australian herd, respectively. Together with the size of the pig herd, the pig slaughter site should also be considered: South Australia (SA) holds nearly 14% of the national pig herd but represents around 23% of the country pig production, suggesting that pigs raised in the bordering states are being slaughtered in SA.

The consumption of chicken and pork has increased over the last decades, causing a swift in the most consumed meat of the Australian market, while the domestic consumption of red meat in Australia has been declined.

Average annual pork consumption per capita is nowadays of 26.5 kg, a 35% increase regarding early 2000s data. Current consumption can be divided into around 10 kg of fresh pork and 16 kg of processed ham products.

Most of the fresh pork is locally grown and its consumption takes place mainly in the catering sector (50%) and institutional facilities (24% at hospitals, schools…). In turn, around 70% of the processed pork products are made of frozen imported pork.

Since the decline of the pig herd and production in the 2000s, there has been a continuous increase in the pork importation. In the recent years, the decline in the imports is linked to the higher demand from China due to the ASF outbreaks. Despite of this, the volume of the annual domestic consumption of imported pork during the last decade is of 46% on average, and the volume of imports still represent around six time the volume on exports.

More than half of the national pork exports are sent to Singapore, followed usually by Papua New Guinea and New Zealand (10-15% of total exports each one). On 2021, unlike past years, the Philippines was the second top export destination of Australian pork (17% of total annual exports), which may be linked the difficulties to cover local demand because of the ASF outbreaks.

On the other side, meat imported into Australia is generally produced in the European Union (mainly Denmark and the Netherlands) and North America (US and Canada).

In line with the global trends, the industry is mostly growing under integrated companies, aiming to reduce the cost of production whilst improving product quality and offering premium pork products to supply the local and Asian markets. Seven of the less than fifty abattoirs of the country are export accredited and process the 80% of the national pig production.

In addition, the Australian pig industry has very specific and special challenges, compared to their surrounding countries, such as: the size of the country and the population distribution in the coastal areas, the water-deficient climate and the strict national biosecurity regulations restricting animal and grain trade. All these factors affect the participation of the Australian pork in the domestic and overseas market.

Currently, the importation of pig semen and fresh or cooled pork is not allowed in the country to ensure the country does not suffer from any major animal disease outbreak. Only 9 originally imported different breeds are covered inside Australian Pig Breeders Association. Three are common in commercial pork production: Landrace, Large White and Duroc.

The disease-free production status, on the positive side, favors the export of Australian pork to Japan and other Asian countries. On the negative side, Australia’s pig genetics are underperforming, and farm productivity is near the bottom of the global league table.

 

Sources:

• Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) https://www.awe.gov.au/abares
• Australian Pork Limited (APL) https://www.australianpork.com.au/
• Livestock and Business Centre Ltd https://lbcentre.com.au/Australian_Pig_Breeders_Society_Australia.php