Mecardo Blog

Toto have been singing about it since 1982, but should livestock producers be paying more attention to Africa in the future, instead of India? 

The Australian livestock sector is perfectly located to take advantage of the growing population of middle class wealth expected to stem from Asia in the coming years. Indeed, there are more mouths to feed in the regions to our north west than there are in the rest of the world – Figure 1. Over 50% of the current world population reside in the shaded circle.

The announcement by Prime Minister Modi of a ban on the “sale of any bovine animals for slaughter” has caught analysts of guard, with some early reports filtering through that this is not a major event on the world beef stage; we are not so sure.

It is pretty clear from reading the government decree that failing any backflip by the government, this will impact the slaughter of cows, buffalo and even camels.  

The EYCI has hit an all-time high of 660.50 cents per kg cwt; this brings to the fore the question of where is the top of the cattle market? Has the market peaked? The old adage of “it takes high prices to fix high prices” starts to resonate.

We have also been around long enough to see frenzied bidding when conditions are good and grass is abundant – grass fever!

Australia and Brazil are undeniably the two “giants” in the global beef trade. Together, both markets account for 35-45% of world trade, and to some extent, dictate the supply and price of beef for available for international customers. With that in mind, our analyst in Brazil Augusto looks into whether the two compete head-to-head for market share.