IMPROVED market access, competition from the US in Japan and Korea and rivalry from alternative proteins have been identified by Meat and Livestock Australia as key focus areas for marketing in 2010-11.
Also high on the agenda is countering misinformation about the impact of red-meat production on the environment, increasing investment in emerging markets and providing producers with more information on the opportunities in the sheepmeat industry.
It's an exhaustive list, but one MLA managing director David Palmer feels is necessary to further Australian red meat in traditional markets, reaffirm it in emerging markets and safeguard it's image both domestically and abroad.
"While underlying demand for our products is still strong, emerging issues threaten the future prosperity of the industry," Mr Palmer said. "MLA is working hard, with industry backing, to best position Australian red meat and livestock on the global stage."
Industry stakeholders met last week for MLA's annual marketing taskforce, designed to scrutinise marketing activities for Australian beef and lamb in the year ahead and to discuss how they want to see marketing levies invested.
MLA trade and policy manager, Andrew McCallum, said the biggest concerns centred on maintaining a stronghold in export markets, Japan and Korea, and servicing new markets as part of a risk management strategy.
Korean imports of Australian beef last year were 71 per cent higher than 2003, when the US was locked out of the market due to mad cow disease.
However, Australian beef now faces a full-scale return of US product accompanied by a $1 million-per-month campaign aimed at winning back Korean consumers.
Trade activities across all market segments in Japan and Korea to maintain the profile of Australian product and push its virtues in emerging markets across South-East Asia would be crucial, Mr McCallum said.
"We have some work to do with positioning Australian product globally," he said.
"We do need to diversify."
While not yet ratified, the Korea-US free trade agreement is poised to deliver a growing tariff advantage to US beef in Korea. Therefore, negotiating an FTA in Korea that would allow access comparable to the US and European Union was a major priority, Mr McCallum said.
