ANZCO Foods Market Update - March 2026

lobal market conditions for beef and lamb remain largely unchanged from my report last month.

Lamb markets remain challenging as we continue to push hard on price with customers who are resisting wherever possible. Beef markets, meanwhile, remain generally upbeat, driven by tight production within the US industry and strong demand from US consumers that is impacting price expectations across our other major beef markets.

Our livestock position during the last month has been unchanged since my last report, making it challenging at an operational level during a period when we would normally expect to be running our plants at full capacity. While one could argue we can justify paying the current historically high livestock prices due to the very strong returns we are still able to extract from the global marketplace, the double whammy of not being able to run our plants efficiently is just adding to our cost burden. This makes it challenging as a business to hit our targets. Thankfully, with the change in month and season, we’re starting to see signs of more livestock becoming available across all categories as we head toward the end of March and into April. As always, we appreciate your support in terms of making your animals available to us. Our Livestock team will continue working with you to maximise that availability so we can return to a more normal operating model and meet the strong demand we’re seeing across strategic markets.

Obviously, the big change in the operating environment during the past month has been the US attacks on Iran and Iran’s subsequent retaliation across the Gulf and beyond. ANZCO Foods has a relatively small level of exposure to the Middle East region from a sales perspective. The massive disruptions that are being experienced across shipping and supply chains into that part of the world are being well managed by our team, and the risk to our business has been marginal up to this point. The major point of uncertainty of course, is how long this war will continue and, if it does drag out, what the impact will be on our business, the wider industry and global markets.

We’re already seeing shipping lines look to impose additional surcharges on our freight rates across all destinations because of the recent spike in oil prices and based on the expectation that we may be living in a high oil price environment for quite some time. That has an immediate impact on our bottom line, as it becomes very hard for us to pass that additional cost on to our customers. As always currency is a watching brief, and it is inevitable that 50% of the ‘experts’ will be proven right while the other 50% will be proven wrong. More broadly across the global industry, the Middle East is a significant buyer of beef and sheepmeat, and if trade continues to be impacted that product will need to be diverted elsewhere, creating more competition in some of our more important markets. Australian sheepmeat into the Middle East is a vital part of their global market mix for example, and while Australian beef volume into the region is far less material, that trade is very specific, with something like 30% of their grain-fed tenderloins heading into high-value markets such as the UAE. The other interesting thing to watch is Brazilian beef trade into China. Unbeknownst to me before this situation arose, a vast majority of Brazilian beef exports destined for China rely on trans-shipping through Middle Eastern ports as opposed to being shipped direct. Now that supply chain link is completely shut down, hence the question is where do all those containers go in the meantime and how do they ultimately find their way to their planned destination? We have seen some knee-jerk reaction from Chinese beef importers in the past week suggesting they are very aware of the risk that this presents.

Ultimately all we can do at the moment is react to developments in the region on a day-by-day basis. Our focus is on managing the inevitable volatility as quickly and professionally as possible. It's impossible to get a read as to where we may be in one week from now let alone one month. By the time I write my April report, many of the risks and concerns noted above may have become redundant, or they may still be playing out and having a significant adverse impact on our business.

Finally, I hope that many of you will have known already or seen in the media in recent weeks about ANZCO Foods’ support for IRONMAN New Zealand, which was held in Taupō on 7 March. We’ve committed to this event as we see it as a great vehicle to promote the nutritional benefits of the product you create on your farm. The race last weekend was bigger and better than ever, with many thousands of athletes and supporters crowding into Taupō to be part of a very special experience. Those who took up the challenge of the half- or full-distance races included 22 ANZCO Foods’ employees and 10 farmers, many of whom supply us with livestock. We feel it’s important to keep telling our story to New Zealand and the world about the amazing product we provide them with, and we hope that it benefits not just ourselves but our industry as a whole. We’d love to see more farmers take up the challenge in 2027, so don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any interest in learning more about what it involves.