Australia continues to use quarantine regulations to largely prohibit the importation of fresh chicken meat according to this week’s edition of the International Egg and Poultry Review from USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). Most chicken imported to Australia is canned chicken meat. Small amounts of frozen, cooked chicken meat are imported from New Zealand, the report said.
Australia’s chicken meat industry operates largely through vertically-integrated companies whose ownership includes not only the processing plants, but also all or at least some of the other elements in the supply chain, AMS said. Two large and fully integrated, privately owned companies supply about 70 percent of broilers marketed in Australia. The remaining 30 percent is shared among six privately owned, medium-sized, integrated processor companies and a number of smaller processors. About 80 percent of all meat chickens are produced under a contract system, with processors supplying day-old chicks and rearing specifications; about 20 percent are grown on company farms.
Australian chicken production in 2012-13 is forecast to increase by 1 percent, to 1.04 million tons, according to Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry report “Agricultural Commodities: September Quarter 2012.” Consumer demand is expected to remain high as chicken prices will continue to be substantially lower than prices of alternative meats, despite the effect of forecast higher feed grain prices. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the consumer price index of poultry declined by 4 percent in 2011-12, leading to a rise in domestic chicken meat consumption to a record 990,000 tons.
In 2012-13, per capita chicken consumption is forecast to be around 44 kilograms (97 pounds), largely unchanged from 2011-12, and remaining Australia’s most consumed meat. Australia’s per person chicken meat consumption increased by 75 percent over 20 years and the retail price disparity between chicken and other meats also increased over the same period. During 2010-11, the retail chicken price in Australia was $5.89 per kilogram (about $2.70 per pound).
