Why the poor beef prices in WA?
By David Cussons Thursday, 18/09/2008 There hasn’t been much good news for beef producers at Western Australian saleyards recently, with even the falling Aussie dollar seemingly having little impact on flat cattle prices. So what’s behind the poor returns and where will it end? Meat and Livestock Australia chief market analyst Peter Weekes says WA isn’t following the eastern states trend of better prices, because they’ve had better rainfall recently, and the movement of the Australian dollar impacts their price more. “WA isn’t nearly as dependant on export markets, it’s more dependant on the domestic market than the eastern states, and the domestic market at the moment is a real restraint on the cattle prices across the country. Normally at this time of year the gap is around that 30 cent mark so it’s not out of the ordinary with this time of year, we do see normally the peak gap between east and west occurring in September.” Mr Weekes says MLA certainly recognises the pain the WA indu
