China flu

Certainly, it's lower demand from China that's holding back a recovery to full health in meat industry returns, whoch had been decidedly sick until recently.

MIA data shows positive growth overall in June, driven by the US, up 14% to $303m, Japan up 53% to $61m, the UK up 66% to $61m and Canada, up 94% to $51m.

China, still the second largest market after the US, was down 38% to $176m - dragging the June average back to a 2% increase overall.

Same deal with second quarter red meat exports, down 1% to $2.9b despite all major markets boosting volumes, except China, which was down a whopping 40%.