{"id":798895,"date":"2026-07-14T03:34:21","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T03:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/798895\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T03:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T03:34:21","slug":"australias-lamb-export-gains-ground-in-us-as-protein-wave-creates-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/798895\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s lamb export gains ground in US as protein ‘wave’ creates demand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lamb might have long been a tradition on Australian plates, but there are signs it is becoming an increasingly popular luxury option for American consumers.<\/p>\n

Australia’s lamb exports to the United States have broken records in recent years and have remained relatively stable despite high prices and uncertainty around tariffs.<\/p>\n

United States-based agricultural analyst Brett Stuart says current global lamb and beef demand “is phenomenal” and that is to Australia’s gain.<\/p>\n

\"Brett<\/p>\n

Brett Stuart has spoken at the recent Australian sheep industry event LambEx. (ABC Rural: Peta Martin)<\/p>\n

“Lamb is having a moment,” Mr Stuart said.<\/p>\n

“It’s kind of a new wave of demand. It’s a new luxury item similar to Wagyu beef.<\/p>\n

“It is hard to explain how those retail trends shift and consumers shift, but boy, demand for lamb is strong in America and around the world.”<\/p>\n

Protein in demand<\/p>\n

He believes some of that demand is being driven by the search for protein across generations.<\/p>\n

“There’s a huge wave chasing protein. Protein is the new buzz word,” Mr Stuart said.<\/p>\n

“You look at these gen Z, these young guys, they’re pouring protein powder on everything they eat right now.<\/p>\n

“Even the elderly \u2026 and the GLP1 drugs, the weight loss drugs, a lot of those diets are designed around small amounts of high-quality protein.<\/p>\n

“So we’re in a spot where every generational group in America is chasing high-quality protein at the same time.”<\/p>\n

\"Rows<\/p>\n

Australia sends more than $1 billion worth of lamb to America every year. (ABC Rural: Laurissa Smith)<\/p>\n

As one of the world’s largest producers, Australia exports about 70 per cent of its lamb overseas, largely to China and the United States.<\/p>\n

Australians eat an average of between 4 to 6 kilograms of sheep meat annually per person, one of the highest rates in the world.<\/p>\n

But despite receiving a large volume of Australia’s lamb exports, Mr Stuart says Americans consume significantly less when averaged out.<\/p>\n

“It’s a very small-consumed item in America, about half a kilo per person [per year],” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’re 40 kilos of chicken a year in America, half a kilo of lamb.”<\/p>\n

Chef driving change<\/p>\n

One person working to change that is US-based chef and media personality Jess Pryles, who believes Australian lamb is “nowhere near” as popular as it should be in the States.<\/p>\n

“That’s what I’m hoping to change,” Ms Pryles said.<\/p>\n

\"Jess<\/p>\n

Jess Pryles says she is slowly trying to erode barriers against eating lamb. (ABC Rural: Peta Martin)<\/p>\n

“In my experience, anytime I can get an American to try lamb, I always hear the same response which is, ‘Oh, I thought I wasn’t going to like it. This is delicious.’<\/p>\n

“They have that barrier up, which is slowly eroding.”<\/p>\n

She is starting to see more Australian lamb “creep in” to places like Texas and among America’s growing multicultural populations.<\/p>\n

“The trick to get people to eat lamb over there is to give it to them in ways they are used to,” Ms Pryles said.<\/p>\n

\"lamb<\/p>\n

Lamb is being used more in American barbecue. (ABC Great Southern: Rhys Jones)<\/p>\n

That means methods like smoking and rotisserie.<\/p>\n

“It’s a slow growth,” she said<\/p>\n

“We hear that story about World War II and the rations turning a lot of people off [lamb] because they had such a terrible experience with boiled mutton.<\/p>\n

“So the story goes that turned a lot of soldiers off, who in turn didn’t feed it to their families and so on. So we’re sort of clawing back space.<\/p>\n

“We know it’s a delicious meat and we know that we make it the best in the world here in Australia.”<\/p>\n

More news from regional SA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lamb might have long been a tradition on Australian plates, but there are signs it is becoming an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508401,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2095,64,63,375177,99,375178,43550,375176,25656,375179],"class_list":["post-798895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-america","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-lamb-demand","tag-business","tag-do-americans-eat-lamb","tag-lamb","tag-lamb-exports","tag-sheep","tag-why-dont-americans-like-lamb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}