Glimmer of Recovery of Australian Poultry Meat Production in 2009

The latest statistics from Australia show some improvements in the poultry meat industry in 2009. The report has been summarised by Jackie Linden for ThePoultrySite.

8 December 2010

3 minute read

The latest issue of Australian Commodity Statistics for 2010 from Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES) presents data for the poultry industry up to 2009. They document something of a rally in terms of poultry meat production in 2009, following stagnation the previous year. Prices in 2009 and the first half of 2010 show no improving trends, however.

The number of poultry slaughtered in 2009 was almost 469 million, which was almost six million or 1.3 per cent more than in the previous year, continuing the generally upward trend since 2003.

Average dressed weight was unchanged at 1.8kg. At 865,000 tonnes, total production in 2009 was 3.1 per cent higher than the year before.

The gross value of poultry slaughtered in Australia in 2009-10 was just under A$1.742 billion, compared with $1.862 billion in 2008-09.

At 40,700 tonnes, one per cent more poultry meat was exported in 2009 than the previous year. As a result of these combined changes, total apparent consumption of poultry meat in the country was 824,400 tonnes, 3.2 per cent more than 2008.

However, using the marketing year as the basis of comparison, 2009-10 brought a lower volume of exports than 2008-09 (28,000 tonnes versus 37,000 tonnes, respectively). Although there was an increase in the average unit value of these exports from A$1.15 to $1.30 per kilo, the value of exports fell from $43 million in 2008-09 to $36 million in 2009-10.

There was a slight drop in per-capita poultry meat consumption from 2008. The 2009 average was 37.2kg.

Australian supply and use of poultry meat (f)
	Unit	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2010
Slaughterings	million	397.2	428.2	418.3	435.6	432.9	444.8	458.6	462.8	468.7
Average dressed weight c	kg	1.7	1.7	1.7	1.7	1.9	1.9	1.9	1.8	1.8
Production c	’000 tonnes	662.0	736.6	719.3	758.5	802.7	840.1	855.9	838.9	865.0
Exports c	’000 tonnes	30.7	28.1	27.1	24.6	29.0	26.8	37.3	40.3	40.7
Total consumption e	'000 tonnes	631.3	708.5	692.2	733.9	773.7	813.3	818.5	798.6	824.4
Consumption per person cd	kg	32.3	35.8	34.6	36.2	37.7	39.3	38.9	37.4	37.2
c Carcass weight e Apparent consumption f Includes chicken, turkey and duck Sources: ABS, Apparent Consumption of Foodstuffs, cat. no. 4306.0, Canberra; ABS, International Trade, Australia, cat. no. 5465.0, Canberra; ABS, Principal Agricultural Commodities, Australia, Preliminary, cat. no. 7111.0, Canberra; ABS, Agriculture, Australia, cat. no. 7113.0, Canberra; ABS, Agricultural Commodities, Australia, cat. no. 7121.0, Canberra; ABARES.