Contribution and Potential Opportunities of Australian Meat and Livestock Industry

This article discusses the contribution of the Australian meat and livestock industry to rural areas and potential opportunities and threats. It covers topics such as climate change, economic factors, government policies, and animal rights in this industry.

Running head: ECONOMICS ASSIGNMENT
Economics Assignment
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Contribution to rural area population:
The cattle and livestock industry of Australia has offered employment opportunity to
almost 200000 people among which the livestock export sector has employed above 10000
people (Howden, Martin, Nelson and Zammit 2018). Most of those people belong from
remote areas, where the option of alternative employment is very limited. Hence, people of
indigenous parts have huge economical benefits from this sector by earning revenue.
Moreover, through exporting products of this industry, people of rural areas have received
huge social benefit as they can maintain minimum standard of living and can maintain their
basic needs as well. This industry has captured significant position in South Australia and
Western Australia. People of those areas have obtained diversified markets that allow them to
receive a better and stable return in the form of revenue or profit. Moreover, vast land grazing
has other positive factor that helps those rural areas to produce more cattle. Thus, this
industry has significant contribution in rural areas.
Potential opportunities and threats to Australian meat and livestock industry:
International Competition:
Australia exports almost 60% of its total beef production to Korea Japan and the
United States. After discovering of BSE disease among animals in Japan, Korea and the
United States, Australia has advantage to export this product by more amounts (Marshall,
Taylor, Heyenga and Butler 2018). Moreover, compare to breeding systems in other parts of
the world, cattle of this county has increased due to large grazing land, which has remained
one of the chief sources of feed.

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Figure : Beef export of Australia in 2015-16
Source: (Howden, Martin, Nelson and Zammit 2018)
According to Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA), the country has remained one of
the efficient producers of cattle and consequently they can meet maximum demand for this
product in world market. Hence, internationally Australia has around 3 percent of the cattle
and buffalo inventory in the world while Brazil, India and China have taken top three
positions while Australia has produced 4 percent of the total beef supply of the world.
Climate:
Climate change influenced livestock production significantly and for this, it is an
essential factor to discuss regarding this topic. Due this changing climate, livestock
production in Western Australia has affected in various ways as some regions get benefits
and some not. Increasing temperature in winter and early spring help heavy rainfall areas in
the south-west to reduce waterlogging that further can benefit livestock production through
increasing forage production for cattle (Wiedemann et al. 2015). Moreover, this changing
climate helps to survive young animals during wet and cold periods. However, in northern

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and eastern areas, increasing temperatures in summer can negatively influence livestock
production as excessive heat reduces forage production or duration of production and this in
turn forces to reduce livestock growth. Moreover, excessive temperature also reduces
sufficient water level or animals.
Figure : Monthly average rainfall in Australia in 2015
Source: (Wiedemann et al. 2015)
The above figure has represented that annual rainfall in Australia has varied over the month
of 2015. At the beginning and ending of the year, the country has experienced huge rail.
Moreover, this trend has remained low compare to year 1961-1990. Hence, this decreasing
trend of rainfall has affected livestock production.
Other Economic factors:
The demand for meat and livestock of Australian market has depended significantly
on some other economical factors like exchange rate, inflation of the country. Higher
exchange rate increases the price of those specified products and consequently demands for
exports decreases. Moreover, higher inflation rate of Australia can force price of meat and
livestock to increase further and consequently demand decreases (Marshall, Taylor, Heyenga

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and Butler 2018). On the other side, demand for meat increases during some special
occasions like Ramadan season, Chinese year and Easter holiday. For instance, during
Chinese year, China increases their demand for meat and livestock while during Easter
holiday demand for this product increases in domestic country and in international market.
During those specified seasons, exporters increase prices to earn more revenue as at those
time demand for those products become inelastic.
Government Policy:
The livestock export industry is one of the most important industries of Australia as it
has earned around $ 1780 million in the financial year 2015-2016 (Coleman 2018).
Moreover, it creates employment opportunity for many people for which governmental policy
and regulation is very important. The government of Australia takes responsibility to those
people, who are involved with this sector, for instance, exporters of livestock and other
support industries on which this sector depends. Hence, the department of Agriculture and
Water Resources controls this export of livestock industry and they have some policy
regarding export. For instance, livestock exporters need to meet high animal welfare
standards under the regulations of the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS)
(Jackson and Adamson 2018). Livestock exporters also need to follow the Australian
Standards for the Export of Livestock. Moreover, the Australian Government has signed
memorandums of understandings (MoUs) with various countries of Middle East and Africa to
continue trade with negotiation.
Animal Rights:
Australia does not have any animal welfare legislation at its national level. Most of
the regulations have formed on state and territory level. The Australian Animal Welfare
Strategy has developed a framework to adopt a unique animal welfare regulation model for
each state and territory level of government (Jackson and Adamson 2018). This policy

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regulates the Land Transport of Livestock to maintain the Australian Animal Welfare
Standards. Except Western Australia, each state of this country has followed this policy.

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References:
Coleman, G., 2018. Public animal welfare discussions and outlooks in Australia. Animal
Frontiers, 8(1), pp.14-19.
Howden, M., Martin, P., Nelson, R. and Zammit, K., 2018. Australian agriculture
overview. Agricultural Commodities, 8(1), p.27.
Jackson, E.L. and Adamson, D., 2018. The live sheep export supply chain: when operational
and societal complexities collide. International Journal of Business and Systems
Research, 12(2), pp.181-196.
Marshall, N.A., Taylor, B.M., Heyenga, S. and Butler, D., 2018. Vulnerability of the
livestock industry in eastern Australia. Sustainability Science, 13(2), pp.393-402.
Wiedemann, S., McGahan, E., Murphy, C., Yan, M.J., Henry, B., Thoma, G. and Ledgard, S.,
2015. Environmental impacts and resource use of Australian beef and lamb exported to the
USA determined using life cycle assessment. Journal of Cleaner Production, 94, pp.67-75.