increase font size
Blake Holgate, RaboResearch's animal protein analyst, says farmgate prices are not expected to drop significantly below long-term averages.
Red meat farmers are being warned to brace themselves for a dip in market returns.
A new report from Rabobank says reduced global demand for higher-value beef and lamb cuts in the year ahead will see New Zealand farmgate prices for beef and sheepmeat drop from the record highs experienced over recent seasons.
In the bank’s flagship annual outlook for the meat sector, Global Animal Proteins Outlook 2021: Emerging from a world of uncertainty, Rabobank says a slow and uneven recovery in the international foodservice sector, combined with weak global economic conditions, will reduce demand for higher-value New Zealand red meat cuts such as prime beef and lamb racks.
Report co-author RaboResearch animal protein analyst Blake Holgate said while lower demand for premium cuts would negatively impact export returns, farmgate prices for New Zealand beef and sheepmeat were not expected to drop significantly below long-term averages.
“Reduced demand for higher-value cuts will pull New Zealand beef export returns back from the record highs of quarter four last year, however, we anticipate solid demand for NZ beef out of the US – particularly for manufacturing beef – and China will underpin returns for New Zealand exporters in 2021,” he said.
“Robust Chinese demand will also play a key role in holding up New Zealand sheepmeat prices in the coming year, as will strong global retail demand and tight lamb supply here and in Australia.”
The report says New Zealand’s beef production will remain flat in 2021 while the longterm trend of declining New Zealand sheep supplies would continue.
“The country’s beef production in 2021 is expected to remain at similar levels to this year with climatic conditions and farmgate pricing poised to determine if production is above or below 2020 levels,” Holgate said.
“The downward trend in New Zealand lamb supplies is forecast to continue for the 2021 season, with poor climatic conditions earlier in the year having impacted stock numbers and lambing percentages in many regions.”
37 farmers from across the Rangitīkei and Manawatū regions recently spent a day-and-a-half learning new business management and planning skills at Rabobank’s latest AgPathways Programmes in Whanganui.
Carey Pawson-Edwards, a South Canterbury stock manager, has been named the winner of the 2026 Rabobank Management Project Award.
Despite near universal optimism in the rural sector, a panel of New Zealand’s leading food and agri minds caution that the sector must be intentional about its future path.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the red meat sector is doing an excellent job promoting our pasture-fed system around the globe.
Rabobank has celebrated the tenth anniversary of its AgPathways Programme, with 23 farmers from Otago and Southland gathering for two-and-a-half days to learn new business management and planning skills.
DairyNZ says Waikato farmers need certainty on Plan Change 1, but they say that certainty must be matched with practical, workable rules and a clear transition that doesn't get ahead of the new resource management system currently under review.
While the Government has moved quickly to make commercial hauliers' lot easier during the current fuel crisis, they appear to be stuck in the creep box when it comes to the agricultural industry.
Waikato farmers have been told that the Government’s new planning system legislation and the region’s Plan Change 1 (PC1) “won’t mesh together very well”.
Farmer owned co-operative Ravensdown has signed a two-year naming rights sponsorship of the Canterbury A&P Show.
OPINION: Confidence in the wool sector is rebounding as prices hit levels not seen in more than 15 years.
More than 300 growers, exporters, researchers, service providers and industry leaders will descend on Queenstown later this month for EXPO 2026, the annual conference for New Zealand’s apple and pear sector.
OPINION: Central Hawke's Bay farmer Mark Warren recently told the Hawke's Bay Times it's time for a conversation about allowing…
OPINION: A nation that relies as heavily as NZ does on functional global shipping lanes will have to do its…
