Global Meat Trade Flows – World Ostrich Association

Newsletter No 67 – Item 1 & 2

This newsletter opened with the dominating news in that week October 2008. That news was the unfolding of the banking crisis. The report went onto comment: At the time of writing there is continued uncertainty as to how these events will affect the global economy. As at April 2013 the full effects are still unclear.

The newsletter went onto discuss a report on the World Meat Congress that took place in Cape Town in early September of that year. Thepoultrysite.com has a number of reports published on their web site. This link http://www.thepoultrysite.com/articles/1153/world-meat-congress-2008 has access to a number of interesting articles commenting on some of the presentations:

Providing a Sustainable Industry
Call for Action on Food Prices
Livestock Industry Warned over Climate Change
Appeal for Trade Talks to Resume
Emerging Animal Diseases and International Trade
Traceability and Quality to Meet Consumer Expectations
China, Russia and Brazil Lead the Way for Pig Meat (on ThePigsite)

The presentations are no longer available for down load but did conatin some interesting data relevant to our industry if it is to become established as a major meat production industry. Following are a few examples that were reported in this newsletter..

The past decade has witnessed increasing consolidation of the meat supply companies as margins are continually squeezed by the major buyers. Figure 1 illustrates the top global meat companies and their growth through mergers and acquisitions (M&A). World Soya, Fats and Grains are also controlled by a very few companies, with Cargill also in the top 3 of both grain and fats. Tyson reported last week that it had purchased three poultry companies in Brazil and earlier this month concluded a Joint Venture deal in China.

Figure 1 – Top Global Meat Companies [source: Richard Brown – GIRA]

Richard Brown from GIRA gave several presentations. Figures 2 and 3, also from Richard Brown’s presentations, illustrate the trade flows of beef and sheep meat.

Figure 2 – Sheep Trade Flows [Source Richard Brown GIRA]

Figure 3 – Beef Meat Flows [Source Richard Brown GIRA]

The importance of this information to our industry remains understanding the tremendous volumes involved within the meat industry, the efficient production systems they have in place, the quality of their genetics achieved over many decades and just how much work Ostrich producers need to do to become competitive suppliers in this market place.