Good appetite for edible beef offal products in export markets

"Rumen what?" you might ask but halal rumen pilllars (which are trimmed from the cow's rumen) were last month selling for up to $25.25 a kg, up 28.5 per cent in the past year.

The latest beef co-products report from Meat and Livestock Australia for May shows the cheapest rumen pillar last month was fetching $12 a kg.

Much of Australia's edible beef offal is exported.

Beef tripe (edible linings from the cow's four stomachs) isn't tripe when it comes to prices. Halal-killed omasum (from the cow's third stomach) was averaging $7.30 a kg in May compared with $6.74 for non-halal product.

Honeycomb tripe (from the second stomach) was fetching $7.90 for halal and $7.85 for non-halal.

Halal beef lips were receiving plenty of love last month, fetching $3.63 a kg. Beef lip prices to the US and Mexico eased two cents a kg month-on-month to average $3.45 a kg.

Tongue was in keen demand, fetching around $12 a kg.

Thick and thin skirt steak from inside the chest and abdominal cavity was fetching between $8.15 to $9.35 a kg.

Cheek meat was going for around $4.80 a kg while halal tails were selling for almost $10 a kg. Tail prices to Korea rose 15c to average $9.88 a kg.

Head meat eased slightly in May, averaging $4 a kg, the MLA report said.

Aorta averaged $8.07kg for the month which was 45c firmer month-on-month.

Meanwhile in the pharmaceutical products category, foetal calf blood was fetching $405 a litre and gall concentrate $31.50.

And topping the rendered products was blood meal 85 at an $816.67 a tonne.