Australian meat processors face exponential rises in operating costs

elisemizzi8
11 hours ago
3 min read

Earlier this month the Australian Meat Processing Corporation (AMPC), the industry research and development entity, released an updated version of what is commonly known as the industry’s “Cost to Operate Report”.

The report specifically covers facilities that process red meat livestock, and data collected excludes livestock costs and any further processing activity, such as that undertaken by wholesalers like Andrews Meat Industries.

It had been about a decade since the last dataset was compiled, and the startling analysis gives context and insight into the rising costs of red meat primary processing in Australia and what exactly has been driving costs upward since the last report’s release in 2018.

The report states:

“In Australia, over half of the total operational costs of running a meat processing business is regulatory costs. Moreover, the burden has increased significantly in each of the main regulated categories examined – labour, utilities and registration/certification, for both grassfed beef and sheep. And the overall regulatory burden has not increased concomitantly compared with the original analysis because of the substantially higher increases experienced in some important categories besides labour, utilities and registration/certification such as transport, repairs and maintenance, and other costs.”

Here’s some key findings that the report discusses.

Since 2015/16, average Australian beef processing costs rose by 47% and sheepmeat processing costs have risen by 58%, well above the 29.5% CPI inflation rate over the period.
The largest increases were in transport, repairs and maintenance, and registration and certification costs.
For both beef and lamb processing, more than 50% of the costs incurred related to regulatory, auditing or compliance–related costs. Of the countries analysed, Australia had by far the highest ratio. New Zealand’s were around 40% and Brazil and the USA both hovered around 30%.
While the average number of cattle processed per day was about the same as a decade ago, the average number of sheep processed had increased by around 2,000 head per day.
The data used for the analysis was collected from Australian processors in December 2025 to reflect 2024/25 figures. However, the summary notes that since then, the Australian Manufacturing Input Price Index rose by 10.7% in 2025/26, which means the figures given in the report would realistically be higher again given the report’s release in August 2026.

An overview of the operating costs structures was given, abridged below, with a ^ indicating a growth on the last report's figure.

(Minor rounding differences shown; refer to the report for more in-depth figures).

Beef processing (excluding livestock costs)

Cost category	This analysis 2024/25		Previous analysis 2015/16
Cost category	$ per head	% of total	$ per head	% of total
Labour-related	^ $268.45	50.6%	$210.94	58.5%
Utilities-related	^ $33.78	^ 6.4%	$21.62	6.0%
Rego / certification	^ $12.10	^ 2.3%	$7.29	2.0%
Packaging	^ $33.79	6.4%	$26.80	7.4%
Transport	^ $94.11	^ 17.7%	$54.01	15.0%
Repairs & maintenance	^ $34.77	^ 6.5%	$14.76	4.1%
Processing consumables	^ $9.15	^ 1.7%	$5.70	1.6%
Other costs	^ $44.73	^ 8.4%	$19.90	5.5%
TOTAL	^ $530.88		$361.02

Sheepmeat processing (excluding livestock costs)

Cost category	This analysis 2024/25		Previous analysis 2015/16
Cost category	$ per head	% of total	$ per head	% of total
Labour-related	^ $33.55	52.17%	$22.45	55.20%
Utilities-related	^ $2.79	4.33%	$2.40	5.90%
Rego / certification	^ $2.21	^ 3.43%	$1.26	3.10%
Packaging	^ $4.38	6.82%	$3.66	9.00%
Transport	^ $8.37	13.02%	$6.10	15.00%
Repairs & maintenance	^ $5.01	^ 7.79%	$1.91	4.70%
Processing consumables	$0.37	0.58%	$1.71	4.20%
Other costs	^ $6.85	^ 10.65%	$1.18	2.90%
TOTAL	^ $64.31		$40.67

The analyses are publicly available online via the AMPC website.

Please refer to the links below for more information.