Opportunities for Australian red meat in the Middle East

IN countries such as Saudi Arabia, strict gender segregation rules remain in place. However in June this year a significant milestone was achieved lifting the ban on women driving. This undoubtedly signals a gradual cultural and socio-economic shift in the wider Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

These shifts will in turn open up more opportunities for Australian exports, including red meat.

MENA covers 28 countries in total but Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) mainly concentrates on what we call the MENA 10 which includes the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE); as well as Egypt, Iran, Jordan and Lebanon.

Australia’s two main markets in the region are Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and where MLA is seeing the impacts of urbanisation and westernisation on consumer trends. 

Food and dining out is a key form of entertainment in Saudi. Casual dining chains from the United States and Europe continue to open in the region, and the foodservice sector will continue to develop, particularly in Saudi. High-end butcher shops selling chilled, vacuum-packed Australian lamb and beef are also emerging in the region.

In Saudi, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar, wealthy younger generations are being educated overseas  and are more exposed to western culture. When they come home, they are earning the money to buy Australian red meat, and are among the consumers MLA is targeting as part of our wider strategy in the region.

MLA has undertaken extensive in-market work to identify key cities in the region that offer growth potential for Australian red meat. Among the cities identified are Dubai, UAE, Doha,Qatar, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait City, based on their rising disposable incomes, growing populations, number of hotels, development of supermarket trade and cold storage infrastructure development. While they’re not in the top six, Tehran, Iran and Istanbul, Turkey have also been identified as presenting future opportunities. They don’t have the same level of rising disposable incomes as the likes of Dubai, but they are both going through some significant changes, and are two of the most populated cities in the region.

Australia has never been restricted on trading food items into Iran, even before the lifting of international economic sanctions on Iran in early 2016. The Iranian government uses tariffs to restrict volumes of product going into the market however when supply is tight, they’ll drop their tariffs and import more product. Tehran is now experiencing a shortage of sheepmeat and lamb is very popular with consumers at retail. As a result, they have dropped their tariffs and Australia is now exporting 700 to 800 tonnes a month of chilled, air-freighted lamb into Tehran.MLA has also helped to achieve an increase in shelf life standards for Australian vacuum-packed chilled lamb from 70 days to 100 days. This will open more opportunities to ship chilled product.

Looking at Istanbul, with stabilisation, its tourism trade will continue to grow. Istanbul is the gateway to the Mediterranean coastline of Turkey, which is a major holiday destination for Europeans.  Historically, Turkey has tried to be self-sufficient in meeting its demand with domestically produced product from both local livestock and live imports, but we’re seeing signs that they’re starting to struggle with this. This is likely to result in protein shortages soon and that’s where we see opportunity, but again, they use high tariffs to restrict volumes. MLA is travelling to Turkey in November to undertake workshops with government departments, talk about supply alternatives and discuss how demand can be met. Market access and addressing trade barriers is a key focus for MLA in the region, and MLA supports the Australian Government in dealing with trade barriers.