This year has been record-breaking for Australian goatmeat, with a mammoth 2.55 million goats processed from January to September. This marks a 23% increase in slaughter rates from the same period last year, 4% higher than the total processed in 2023.
Surging production can be traced back to favourable weather conditions in key goat-producing regions, as well as the reopening and expansion of goat processing plants.
These two factors, along with strong demand from key international markets (the United States being the largest export market), created the perfect conditions for a bumper year. Close to 47,000 tonnes shipped weight (swt) of goatmeat were exported between January and November. This is more than a 50% increase on the same period in 2023. Remarkably, this is also 17% more than the previous record-breaking calendar year, 2014.
Much of the goatmeat exported went to the US. With 54% of the Australian market's total exports (up to November 2024), the US more than doubled their imports in 2024.
Beyond the US, much of Australia's goatmeat went to Korea (17% share) and China (8% share).
This market expansion has been felt across the board with all key production states increasing slaughter year-on-year.
In terms of processing performance, Victoria remains the largest processing state (44% of all Australian goatmeat), followed by Queensland with 27% and NSW with 26%. NSW had a particularly strong year, more than doubling their processing volumes from last year.
