The red meat industry in selected regional economies

The economic importance of the red meat industry is more significant at the regional level where farming, particularly livestock production, comprises a large proportion of total economic activity. To illustrate this, four production activities within the red meat industry were identified and a region for each was selected. These were a lamb producing region, a live sheep exporting region, a beef producing region and a red meat processing region.

The identification of livestock regions makes use of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) 2005-06 Agricultural Census (2008f) and 2006 Census of Population and Housing (2007), where employment and values of agricultural production including livestock production are available at the Statistical Local Area (SLA) level. As livestock production activities could vary and change in concentration over time, because of a number of factors including drought, the use of the latest statistical information at the SLA level allows an accurate representation of areas where red meat production is a major activity. Details of region selection are discussed in appendix C.

From a range of possible regions that could potentially represent the selected red meat production activities, the final regions selected were a region in Western Australia for live sheep exporting, a region in New South Wales for lamb production, a region in Queensland for beef production and a region in South Australia for meat processing (map 3).

Western Australian live sheep exporting region

For the purpose of this analysis, a Western Australian sheep producing area was formed, encompassing most of the Western Australian wheat sheep zone. It was treated as a live export focused region since Western Australia accounts for a large majority of Australia’s live sheep exports. Fremantle Port, in the vicinity of the region, accounted for 75 per cent of Australia’s live sheep exports during 2008.

During 2006, sheep farming in this region employed 1955 people, or 3.1 per cent of the region’s employed labour force. This region accounted for 66.6 per cent of all workers employed in sheep farming in Western Australia, totalling 2936. The value of sheep and lamb slaughterings in this region also accounted for a large majority of Western Australia’s total value of sheep and lamb slaughterings. During 2005-06 the region’s value of sheep and lamb slaughterings was $383 million. Although the sheep industry represented only 10.5 per cent of the region’s total agricultural production value, as a proportion of Western Australia’s sheep and lamb slaughtering value, the region accounted for 81.7 per cent.

10 Contribution of WA sheep producing region
	sheep and lamb slaughtering a		sheep farming employment b		other red meat employment bc		total red meat employment b
	value	share	number	share	number	share	number	share
	$m	%		%		%		%
Region	383	10.5	1 955	3.1	1 620	2.6	3 575	5.7
Western Australia	469	8.1	2 936	0.3	4 818	0.5	7 754	0.8
Australia	2 112	5.5	20 630	0.2	73 219	0.8	93 849	1
Proportion of region    to WA		81.7		66.6		33.6		46.1
Proportion of region     to Australia		18.2		9.5		2.2		3.8
a 2005-06. b 2006. c Beef cattle specialist and meat processing employment. Sources: ABS 2007, 2008f.

New South Wales lamb producing region

A New South Wales lamb producing area which incorporates the Northern and Southern Highlands was selected. This region, employing 4354 people in sheep farming, accounted for 56.3 per cent of New South Wales’ sheep farming workers, but only 2.2 per cent of total workers in the region during 2006.

The production value of sheep and lamb slaughterings in the region was $257 million during 2005-06, accounting for 54 per cent of the value of slaughterings in New South Wales. Sheep and lamb slaughtering contributed 6.9 per cent of the total value of agricultural production.

11 Contribution of NSW lamb producing region
	sheep and lamb slaughtering a		sheep farming employment b		other red meat employment bc		total red meat employment b
	value	share	number	share	number	share	number	share
	$m	%		%		%		%
Region	257	6.9	4 354	2.2	7 899	4	12 253	6.2
New South Wales	476	5.3	7 734	0.3	20 635	0.7	28 369	1
Australia	2 112	5.5	20 630	0.2	73 219	0.8	93 849	1
Proportion of region    to NSW		54		56.3		38.3		43.2
Proportion of region    to Australia		12.2		21.1		10.8		13.1
a 2005-06. b 2006. c Beef cattle specialist and meat processing employment. Sources: ABS 2007, 2008f.

Queensland beef cattle region

The beef cattle region was selected to be in Queensland, extending from Townsville to Stanthorpe. In this region, 8423 of the total 144 841 workers, or 5.8 per cent of the labour force, were employed in beef cattle farming. Of the total number of workers employed in beef cattle farming in Queensland, this region accounted for 46.6 per cent.

The region’s value of cattle and calf slaughterings during 2005-06 was estimated to be more than $2.02 billion. This contributed a significant 52 per cent to the region’s agricultural production value, and accounted for 56 per cent of Queensland’s total value of cattle and calf slaughterings.

12 Contribution of QLD cattle producing region
	cattle and calf slaughtering a		beef cattle employment b		other red meat employment bc		total red meat employment b
	value	share	number	share	number	share	number	share
	$m	%		%		%		%
Region	2 021	51.9	8 423	5.8	2 768	1.9	11 191	7.7
Queensland	3 607	41.4	18 060	1	10 265	0.6	28 325	1.6
Australia	7 685	19.9	48 626	0.5	45 223	0.5	93 849	1
Proportion of region    to QLD		56		46.6		27		39.5
Proportion of region    to Australia		26.3		17.3		6.1		11.9
a 2005-06. b 2006. c Sheep specialist farming and meat processing employment. Sources: ABS 2007, 2008f.

Northern Australia live cattle exporting region

Exports of live cattle are an important segment of Australia’s cattle market, significantly adding to the total value of exports. More than 6 per cent of Australia’s total value of cattle production in 2007-08 was accounted for by live cattle exports. Australia exported 713 000 cattle, valued at close to $451 million, during that year.

In recent years, more than 80 per cent of total live cattle exports, including most slaughter and feeder cattle, have been sourced from northern Australia (map 4) (Drum and Gunning-Trant 2008). Many regions in the Northern Territory and northern parts of Western Australia and Queensland are significantly reliant on the live cattle exporting industry.

South Australia meat processing region

South-eastern South Australia was selected to represent a meat processing area. During 2006, 6.3 per cent of workers in this region were employed in meat processing, compared with 0.3 per cent nationally and 0.3 per cent in South Australia. Meat processing, and beef cattle and sheep farming employment contributed 13 per cent to total employment in this region. Statistics on the value of meat processing are unavailable because of confidentiality issues.

Meat processing is a relatively large employer in a number of other regions, including Rockhampton/Fitzroy, Toowoomba/Darling Downs and Western Brisbane in Queensland, and north-eastern NSW, including the Northern Tablelands. Meat processing employment data for these regions are in table 14.

13 Contribution of SA meat processing region
	meat processing employment a		other red meat employment ab		total red meat employment a
	number	share	number	share	number	share
		%		%		%
Region	1 164	6.3	1 183	6.4	2 347	12.8
South Australia	2 101	0.3	4 602	0.7	6 703	1
Australia	24 593	0.3	69 256	0.8	93 849	1
Proportion of region to SA		55.4		25.7		35
Proportion of region to Australia		4.73		1.71		2.5
a 2005-06. b Beef cattle and sheep farming employment. Source: ABS 2007.

14 Selected regions most reliant on meat processing
region	meat processing employment	all industry employment	proportion
North-eastern NSW	976	24 800	3.94
South-east SA	1 164	18 363	6.34
Rockhampton QLD	1 179	50 821	2.32
Toowoomba QLD	1 154	36 659	3.15
Western Brisbane QLD	1 405	57 319	2.45
Total	5 878	187 962	3.13
Source: ABS 2007.