Cattle and sheep prices might be in the part of the cycle that is most painful for the producer but for those thinking they might jump ship, there's nothing like a bit of comparison to put things in perspective.
Episode 3 has run the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator and the Eastern States Trade Lamb Indicator against vegan stocks. The meat alternatives are plummeting at the same rate as livestock prices but to far lower depths.
And there won't be a 'cycle' in the case of the vegan stocks.
Episode 3 analyst Matt Dalgleish, who presented the graph at a webinar on livestock markets hosted by the Roundtable group of independent agents last night, said one positive to take away from the current market downside was that it could always be worse if you're producing something people don't want.
"Even though it's difficult times for the red meat producer, we are not faring as badly as the poor souls creating fake meat," he said.
Mr Dalgleish also presented data on Beyond Meat, one of the larger international companies selling plant-based meat alternatives, which showed sales were dropping away significantly but operating profits are not, indicating the company is now struggling to make a profit.
"There was an initial phase where there was excitement around trying a different product and sales of these types of products were buoyant," he said.
"But they are not there on the quality of what they are producing or the price point and that has affected their ability to compete with real meat.
"Now that novelty has worn off, it's really impacting their share price."
Consumer spend
In the pie chart showing each protein's share of the fresh meat market by value, beef is king, despite the fact chicken rules the roost in terms of volumes sold.
Beef's share is 35 per cent, compared to chicken at 30pc, lamb and pork both at 11pc, seafood at 10pc and others at just 3pc.
Beef commands a bigger part of the shopping budget for Australian consumers.
Chicken dominates per capita consumption, having hovered around the $5 per kilogram average retail price mark for the past decade while beef has shot up to more than $25 in recent times.
In the past quarter, retail prices of red meat have come back somewhat but Mr Dalgleish said there was still some way to go before the softening of livestock prices at saleyards flowed through fully to the supermarket shelf.
Shan Goodwin
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
