THE country’s purchase of Australian red meat is ex-pected to go up in the next few years due to the improving purchasing power of Filipinos, the Philippine unit of Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) said on Thursday.
Peter Paul Perez, country manager of MLA, said the increasing preference of Filipinos for lamb will also boost imports of Australian red meat.
Perez also said global demand for red meat from Australia will remain steady despite expectations of lower output due to drought.
“There was drought in Australia for the past five years. For the past two to three years, production was very high as farmers opted to slaughter their cattle rather than not feed them. This year we expect the trend to correct itself,” he said.
Perez said climate change is a major factor behind the slowdown in Australia’s red-meat output.
MLA said Australia’s red meat industry is estimated at A$17 billion. Australia is considered the third-largest beef exporter in the world and accounts for 4 percent of the world’s beef supply.
For lamb, Australia said it has exported a total of A$1.5 billion. It shipped out 57 percent of its lamb production and 96 percent of its mutton output.
Last year Australia’s beef exports to the Philippines rose by 27 percent year-on-year to 34,352 metric tons (MT) in 2014. Lamb exports expanded 18 percent to 566 MT last year.