Page 59 - Food Outlook

OVINE MEAT
Trade to contract marginally
World trade in ovine meat is forecast to fall marginally in 2017, to 905 000 tonnes, 0.5 percent less than in 2016. The small decline principally reflects a nearly 2 percent decrease of exports from Australia and New Zealand, primarily due to supply constraints. Import demand is expected to rise slightly across main markets, especially in China, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia, but to fall in the EU.
Production continued modest growth
Ovine meat production is forecast to increase by a modest 0.6 percent, to 14.5 million tonnes, confirming a trend
of small year-to-year gains. Asia and Africa account for
80 percent of production, and where traditional systems are largely dominant. China, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Algeria and countries of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are among the largest ovine meat producers, but output in Oceania continues to play the most critical role in world trade. In 2017, as in the preceding two years, outputs
in both Australia and New Zealand have come under pressure which may depress their joint output by as much as 3.8 percent, despite a positive performance in the first half of 2017. The contraction is expected to arise from the process of herd rebuilding, which reduced the number of lambs available for slaughtering. Meanwhile, in the EU, output is projected to grow by 2.6 percent.
FOOD OUTLOOK NOVEMBER 2017
53
MEAT AND MEAT PRODUCTS