Australia’s sheepmeat industry
Australia is one of the world’s leading producers of lamb and mutton, the largest exporter of mutton and live sheep, and second largest exporter of lamb. The Australian public are among the biggest consumers of lamb in the world.
National flock
The Australian national sheep flock is 72.74m head (*)
30,836 properties with sheep and lambs (*)
40.9m breeding ewes one-year and older (*)
Major prime lamb production areas include the NSW Riverina and wheat-sheep zone, Murray region and high rainfall areas in south-west VIC and eastern SA
Major sheep producing areas include south-west WA, south-west VIC and southern NSW
The sheepmeat industry accounts for 23% of all farms with agricultural activity (*)
The area operated by farms with lambs and sheep is around 134m ha (30% of all agricultural area)
Production
431,566 tonnes of lamb and 215,405 tonnes of mutton were produced in 2009 (**)
The off-farm meat value of the Australian sheepmeat industry is $4.4b
The gross value of Australian sheep, lamb and live sheep production is around $2.6b
Lambs and sheep contributed 6% of the total farm value of $45b in 2008-09
Victoria is Australia largest prime lamb producer (42.1%)
Australia produces 8% of the world’s lamb and mutton supply
Consumption
The industry employs around 106,200 workers
Domestic expenditure is estimated at $2.3b for lamb and $268m for mutton (2008-09)
Australians ate 10.8kg of lamb and 2kg of mutton per person in 2009
Around 51.7% of Australian fresh meat buyers purchase lamb
Exports
In 2009, Australia exported 45% of all lamb and 79% of all mutton produced (**)(***)
The value of total lamb exports in 2009 was $975m and mutton exports $480m (**)
Australian live sheep exports were valued at $323m in 2009 (**)
The lamb and sheep industry (including live sheep) contributed around 6% to the value of total Australian farm exports in 2008-09
The US is the biggest market for Australian lamb exports (23.2%) (***)
The Middle East is the biggest Australian market for mutton exports (38.8%) (***)
All figures based on MLA/ABS/ABARE 2008-09 unless otherwise stated.
* - ABS Agricultural commodities - figures for 30 June 2009
** - latest available ABS data - figures for calendar year 2009
*** - latest available DAFF data - figures for calendar year 2009
Per capita consumption figures from MLA sheep industry projections 2010
