Shane Kingston, General Manager Sales at Alliance Group, says global beef markets are showing signs of volatility after a strong 2022.

“The market in China is easing with importers facing several challenges. The continued uncertainty with intermittent city lockdowns, the decreasing value of the Renminbi (RMB) to the US dollar and inventory building has weakened the Chinese market and impacted confidence, which has been reflected in lower wholesale market prices.

“The US market continues to track steadily down in value as domestic processing volume continues to be high as farmers send in higher volumes of animals for processing. The consequences of this high and prolonged processing season will have an impact on stock volumes in the next 2-3 years and potentially provide longer term support to New Zealand pricing. US importers are continuing to bid grinding meat down as the Chinese market deteriorates. They are looking to reposition their inventories with lower priced beef.  

“Alliance Group is continuing to invest in our Handpicked Beef programme, which rewards our farmers with premiums if they supply animals that meet certain attributes. There has been positive interest in this programme from farmers and customers alike. We have included Angus in our premium beef offer recently and there has been positive feedback based on consistency and eating quality.

“The growth of attribute-based programs with a focus on eating quality remains a cornerstone of our premium beef programmes. We are pleased with our Angus programme performance, but continue to seek more criteria-meeting cattle to enable the next phase of our growth.”