Africa's potential as a big beef customer on the US radar

For Australian exporters the prospects elsewhere stack up better but the long-term potential of the world's second most populous continent is still being noted.

The US Meat Export Federation is pushing for market access attention in the region, saying there is some lucrative "low-hanging fruit to be had if we are able to get a bit of a break on the access side."

USMEF president Dan Halstrom, in an interview on RFD-TV, said: "Rwanda, Nigera, Angola - these places remind me a lot of Mexico in the 1980s and what is Mexico today - one of our most reliable markets with almost a billion in sales of US meat.

"So I don't think it will be too far in the future that some of these African places will take centre stage."

He said with a population of 1.5b people and growth prospects of well over 2b in the near future, and increasing earning ability, Africa represented a "legitimate spending power".

There had been substantial growth on the US beef co-products side - livers, hearts and kidneys - to Africa, he said.

The US's number one market for beef livers traditionally had been Egypt "which is economically challenged at the moment" so diversifying is on US exporters' agenda, Mr Halstrom said.

Offal is also where it's at for Australian beef going into Africa, although the volumes are far smaller than shipments to China and South East Asia.

Meat & Livestock Australia figures show Australia has exported beef to Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa, Angola, Senegal and Seychelles but in relatively tiny amounts.

Mauritius has received the biggest volumes in recent years but its monthly peaks are just 50,000 kilograms.

For all the African countries, annual flows have only been around a thousand tonnes.

Offal is the main product, with beef and veal only 10 per cent of the offal volumes.

Episode 3's Matt Dalgleish said a number of issues make Africa a far less attractive market than many of Australia's other beef markets, not the least being the lack of free trade deals with African countries.

"The cost of the logistics and the fact there are not a lot of direct trade routes is another," he said.

"And many other regions, like SEA, have just as good, if not better, growth potential."

Mr Dalgleish said Australia was a significant player in the export space but did not have a strategy of attempting to "provide everything to everywhere."

"We have a big exportable surplus but not the volumes of beef producers like Brazil," he said.

"We target high-value markets and most of Africa would be very much commodity price driven.

"If you look at China - Australia targets just a handful of key cities that have higher per capita income, not the whole country.

"That's not to say there aren't pockets in Africa that could become lucrative trading partners and it's definitely a long-term prospect to keep on watch."