The week in review 18/05/12
- The softening in the young cattle and restocker/feeder lamb side of the market can largely be associated with a drier stretch of weather (at least by the very wet standard of the past two years), which has seen buyer demand ease.
- The benchmark EYCI finished Thursday at 363.50¢, back 10.75¢ for the week, while heavy steers nationally dropped 15¢, to average 325¢/kg cwt. Lamb prices contracted 7-16¢ this week, as yardings increased 6%, with trade and heavy lambs averaging 421¢ and 400¢/kg cwt, respectively.
- In what seems to be becoming an unwelcome, but frequent event, global economic uncertainty continues to act as a handbrake on demand and prices for Australian red meat exports. Concerns about Europe and China, and varied news out of the US this week, again increased consumer uncertainty, which sees many importers and end-users across a lot of markets take a very cautious approach to forward orders.
More red meat market trends and analysis