The Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC) says rising costs, tight livestock supply and shrinking export access are converging on processors just as national agricultural production hits a record $100 billion.
Australia’s meat processors say the commercial viability of parts of their sector is being seriously tested, with rising operating costs, tight livestock supply and shrinking access to major export markets converging, just as national agricultural production hits a record $100 billion.
AMIC said processors are facing “death by a thousand cuts”, with labour constraints and an increasing regulatory burden compounding cost and trade pressures.
Processing costs have risen faster than inflation over the past decade, AMIC said, while industry modelling estimates around $2 billion worth of Australian meat exports are being affected by trade restrictions across China, Korea and Indonesia.
Australian Meat Industry Council CEO, Tim Ryan, said the industry needed actions and outcomes to stem the damage and keep Australian meat internationally competitive.
“While we have been raising these issues with government, the fact is the operating environment continues to deteriorate, and decisions are being made which constrain, rather than support, meat processors and the regions and jobs that rely on them,” Ryan said.
Export access has been the largest pressure point. In June, Australian beef exporters were hit with a 55 per cent tariff on shipments to China for the remainder of 2026, after the country exhausted its 205,000-tonne safeguard quota in under six months.
The industry also emerged from the Australia-EU Free Trade Agreement negotiations with an outcome AMIC said fell well short of commercially meaningful red meat access, and which it has previously described as locking in a permanent competitive disadvantage for Australian exporters. Government-controlled export charges are another unresolved cost.
“Government does not control global commodity markets or international conflicts, and we understand that.
“But it does control the costs it imposes on exporters. It has a role in workforce policy. And it has enormous influence over how hard Australia pushes to protect and expand market access. These are the areas where we need government making the operating environment better, or at a minimum ensuring it does not become worse,” Ryan said.
AMIC said frustration was growing around market access in particular, where high-level engagement with government had not translated into outcomes in critical markets.
“The government has been fast to promote incremental market access improvements and wins, but the fact is that our access to key markets is going backwards.
“While we welcome the engagement, engagement has to produce outcomes. When market access disappears, when technical barriers remain unresolved and when new costs keep being added at home, something must give.”
Beef processor margins have dropped in recent months as market access deteriorated across several key destinations and livestock costs stayed elevated. Ryan said the sheepmeat sector was in a genuinely precarious position, with acute livestock shortages and little capacity to absorb another major shock.
Lamb exporters are also awaiting the outcome of a US International Trade Commission global safeguard investigation into lamb imports, referred in July. The US is Australia’s single largest lamb market, taking roughly a quarter of exports.
The warning lands against a softening national outlook. ABARES forecasts the gross value of Australian agricultural production will fall six per cent to $95 billion in 2026-27, after a record $101.4 billion in 2025-26, with the value of cattle slaughter and live exports down 14 per cent to $19.6 billion.
“What processors can earn in global markets and what farmers receive at the farmgate cannot remain disconnected forever,” Ryan said.
“If we continue losing value and market options overseas, eventually that flows back to livestock producers. We are sounding the alarm while there is still time to correct course.”
