Record April for Australian beef, despite Trump complaints
Exports of beef from Australia in April reached a volume of 127,172 tonnes, a new record for the month and a 21% increase overall compared to the same month last year.
Shipments to the US increased by 37% year on year to reach 37,213 tonnes for April. This is in spite of comments that US president, Donald Trump, specifically about beef trade between his country and Australia at the start of the month.
At his Liberation Day presentation of new tariffs that the US is imposing on its trading partners, President Trump said there would be a baseline tariff of 10% on imports from Australia. He said: “Australians are wonderful people, but they ban American beef. They won’t take any of our beef, yet we imported $3 billion of Australian beef last year alone.”
Global supply analyst at Meat and Livestock Australia, Tim Jackson, said North America remained the largest market for Australian beef exports. In addition to the large increase in shipments to the US, he explained that exports to Canada had increased by 40% in April, reaching 3,322 tonnes in volume.
