Episode 3 co-founder Andrew Whitelaw optimistic on ‘rosy’ future of Australian beef industry

Market analyst and Episode 3 co-founder Andrew Whitelaw is optimistic of the Australian beef industry’s “rosy” future amidst an increase in popularity of locally-sourced beef.

Speaking at the Western Australian Livestock Research Council forum in Gingin, Mr Whitelaw said Australia was still a huge consumer of red meat.

“We’re reproducing meat . . . the domestic market gets satisfied first,” he said.

“The picture for red meat looks very rosy . . . I am more negative on the grains market than the red meat market.

“Over time Australia is still a huge consumer of meat — one of the biggest in the world per capita — but that domestic consumption of beef and that domestic consumption of pork has dropped significantly.

“Since 2000, lamb and beef has gone down, but chicken and pork has gotten more and more popular.”

Mr Whitelaw said that over time, domestic consumption of was a change of population demographic who consumed more pork than red meat.

“Locally we’re seeing things like chicken hasn’t really changed in price for a long time — pork has gone up, but it’s still cheap,” he said.

“When we look at pork, one of the factors that’s created that increased consumption is the demographic change in Australia.

“We have got more Philippines, more South Asians, more Chinese, who eat pork a lot more as a staple than white populations do.”

Contributing to the bright outlook of the Australian beef industry was the decline of meat analogue, also known as fake meat, which surged during COVID but has since declined in demand.

“Nobody wants fake meat,” Mr Whitelaw said.

“I think that these products, the reason why they’re not successful is because we’re seeing they’ve been very successful to start, and were very good attractive propositions for investment.

“But the reality is that consumers went out and bought a burger — but they only tried it once, and they didn’t try it again.

“The reason behind that is because they’re not very good, whereas beef is pretty consistent, and Australian beef is probably the most consistent in the world.”

Mr Whitelaw said beef is following a strong upward trend as the second largest exporter of beef behind Brazil, with a reputation of strong biosecurity protocols.

“We are the second largest exporter of beef around the world — way behind Brazil — so we have the ability to export to almost anywhere because we have biosecurity protocols,” he said.

Despite the 10 per cent tariff imposed on exports from Australia to the United States Mr Whitelaw was optimistic that WA would be the “least exposed”.

“Tariffs have been a big talking point in recent times since Trump came into effect, there has been that fear of tariffs,” he said.

“The reality is we’ve got a 10 per cent tariff — it’s our biggest market but it’s not really a huge issue at the moment.

“We’re seeing the US doesn’t have any beef to export to any significant volume, so we’re seeing their imports rising and their exports declining, which is good for us, because they are no longer competing with us in a lot of markets.”