January 14, 2026 • 8 mins
Our Aussie correspondent on record beef exports and new Chinese tariffs, plus EU trade talks and fertiliser concerns.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well Australia. Corresponding Chris Russell joins us. Now, Chris, welcome
to twenty twenty six. How well have your summer been
pretty hot over there?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, look us been pretty warm and yeah, happy new
year to year if we can still say that, and
to everyone listening, it's good to be cranking up for
another year over here.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
But it's been a very warm Christmas.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I think I was telling you off here that you know,
we had all the kids over here, all the grandkids
swimming in the pool because the pool water was thirty
degrees unheated. The day temperature on Christmas Eve was about
forty four point six here, so that's getting up there.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, it certainly is. Righty, you had a record year
for beef exports, but what a thick will the new
Chinese tariffs have?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yes, well, we.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Did have an a mating year. Really about one point
five million tons that we've exported out of Australia this year,
which is you know, that's the first time we've.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Been over that one point five million.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Biggest customer, of course, United States took about four hundred
and twelve thousand tons, which is up about seventeen percent
year on year, but the little click on the horizon,
really is this new Chinese tariff on anything over quota. Now,
the interesting thing is that Australia's quota has just been
set for this year at two hundred and three thousand tons.
(01:15):
New Zealand there's two hundred and six thousand, so that's surprising.
Of course, if you look at the quota that comes
in from Brazil that's sitting up there, around one point
one to two million tons it goes in, so they're
even more affected. And they've actually just imposed a self
imposed limit on their monthly exports of about eighty thousand
tons to try and keep.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
That under control and not run out of quota by
the middle of the year.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
But last we normally to China. I think this year's
China we sold about two hundred and seventy thousand tons,
so we're well over. You only put about one hundred
and sixty five thousand tons in, so you actually don't
even use your current quota, So I'm not seeing it's
going to affect you that much. But certainly for us,
we would be normally anticipate to the quota would only
(02:02):
be around about two thirds of the amount of beef
that we would.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Send over there, So that's going to have some effect.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Homish, Yeah, we'll look and follow that closely. Bit of
the status quo from the Kiwi. In latest Australia Day
Lamb ad hits the spot.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Ah, that's it's awesome. You should google that and have
a look. I've sent a copy across to Michelle say
she may put a link up on your Facebook page.
But it's an awesome ad based around the new statistics
that say we dropped out of the top ten favorite.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Places to live in the world, and of course.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Taking note of that and saying, well, you know, but
Lamb is the cure. A fantastic ad full of puns
and humor. Same Sam Kekeovich hosting it.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
You'll love it. And of course that's the highlight of
the Lamb sales in the year.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
They go up about twenty five percent based on that
ad around Australia Day. It's been one of the most
successful campaign for any agricultural product in Australian history.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Homish Yeah, oh, fantastic, looking forward to having a look
at that. Now, Look, everything affects everything, doesn't it. When
we talk about the effect of the Iranian tensions, that's
going to have a bit of a flow on potentially
quite significant for Australian agriculture.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well not only Australia, I think globally.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
You might think that you know, Iran is a hell
of a long way away, but you've got to remember
they produce about ten percent of the world's urea and
you know, of course largely on the base of how
energy intensive urea production is. In fact, we've got factories
in Australia to shut down because the energy just doesn't
make it viable to produce urea in Australia. But so
(03:44):
you know, if we actually switch off these urea plants
o or switch off access these urea plants in Iran,
and that's certainly going to be a big disruption to
our fertilizers supply. And you can't just turn on factories
over in other countries. So I think that's probably the
single biggest effect that we're likely to see. We don't
(04:07):
shift that much stuff there, and what we do will
find outher markets for but there's not much we can
do about that. And I imagine New Zealand will have
the same problem.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Hamish, Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now, how's the talks with
the EU going over a free trade agreement. How's that
looking for Australia at the moment.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Well, look, they're pretty keen to accelerate these Unlike New Zealand,
Australia has jacked up at about the naming issues for
things like prosecco and feta and parmesan and so on.
We just said that we're just not going to do that.
So and of course we al also want a much
(04:47):
better access for our agricultural goods, so we're not getting that.
There's really nothing in it for Australia.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Now.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I know New Zealand's sort of bitting the bullet and
sort of taking a pragmatic view that's better to have
agreement than no agreement, but we have done that. Of course,
Europe would love to get TARA free access of their
motor cars in particular into Australia, and they also want
access to our mineral sands, you know, these rear earths
and all these things that we keep hearing about that
(05:14):
have become so critical in the production of electric cars
and so on. So there is pressure from both sides
to get a meeting, but at the moment both sides
are implacable. The other issue with Europe is there's twenty
seven members that have all to agree to it as well,
so it's even if you do get an agreement between
the EU Commissioner and our Trade Minister Don Farrell, you know,
(05:36):
it's sitting and it takes.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Some time to get around those twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
People and talk them into it because they've all got
their own interest at heart, despite them being trading as
a single block. So I'm not all that optimistic that's
going to happen unless we just cave in, which I
think would be a terrible thing. There's no point in
having one if we don't get better access for our
Australian agricultural goods.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
And certainly some.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Of these name things they're required for just Bricati Prosecco,
for example. I actually named the town after the wine
retrospectively in and out claiming naming rights.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
That's ridiculous. So I just.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Don't see that being something that we're going to give
in either. But both the ministers are saying, well, we
need to get on with it, and that's certainly true.
But you know, all these subsidies that they have in
Europe are very expensive. It's an implacable problem over there politically, yep.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Chris almost going to wrap it up, but there's this
sort of a feel good but sand story at the
same time about a cow that ended up What eighty
k's out to see because we've heard a lot about
the heat and the fires, but not so much about
those floods up north.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yeah, well that's we've had big floods up there from
a cyclone that went through.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
And one of the survival stories that we've heard ab
out of this they reckon.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
They've lost around about fifty thousand head of cattle so far,
which is not as much as the big losses they
had back in twenty twenty one, fifty thousands a lot,
but one cow called up in Queensland, a heifer belonging
to a bloke called who goes under the name of
Lizard Seymour. His name, his probab name's Michael, but he
(07:11):
calls himself Lizard. They had six hundred and fifty millimeters
of rame as from this cyclone Kogi, and he lost
a fair few head of cattle, about seventy head, and
he'd sort of given up on them a bit until
he got a rang from the Mackay Police to say
that an eleven month old ren Brangus heifer had been
washed washed off up on the beach and was sitting
on the beach waiting to be rescued.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Now that's how that's true. That well, it is true.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Had gone over three weirs, Marani, Marion and doubleton Ware
down to the mouth of the river eighty kilometers out
the sea, and then the returning tired had brought her
back in and shoved on the beach. Now, as you
can imagined, she was pretty naked, but her brother went
down there with a trailer. His brother went down there
with a trailer, picked her up bord a home or
just sent a picture over online and she looks as
though she's going to be back on the farm, you know,
(07:58):
with her first carves sometime this year.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
So that's an amazing story.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
There we go. Love a good, amazing, feel good story.
To wrap it up, that's our Australia correspond at Chris Russell.
Thanks very much, Chris.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
No worries imn
Well Australia. Corresponding Chris Russell joins us. Now, Chris, welcome
to twenty twenty six. How well have your summer been
pretty hot over there?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yeah, look us been pretty warm and yeah, happy new
year to year if we can still say that, and
to everyone listening, it's good to be cranking up for
another year over here.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
But it's been a very warm Christmas.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
I think I was telling you off here that you know,
we had all the kids over here, all the grandkids
swimming in the pool because the pool water was thirty
degrees unheated. The day temperature on Christmas Eve was about
forty four point six here, so that's getting up there.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Yeah, it certainly is. Righty, you had a record year
for beef exports, but what a thick will the new
Chinese tariffs have?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yes, well, we.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Did have an a mating year. Really about one point
five million tons that we've exported out of Australia this year,
which is you know, that's the first time we've.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Been over that one point five million.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Biggest customer, of course, United States took about four hundred
and twelve thousand tons, which is up about seventeen percent
year on year, but the little click on the horizon,
really is this new Chinese tariff on anything over quota. Now,
the interesting thing is that Australia's quota has just been
set for this year at two hundred and three thousand tons.
(01:15):
New Zealand there's two hundred and six thousand, so that's surprising.
Of course, if you look at the quota that comes
in from Brazil that's sitting up there, around one point
one to two million tons it goes in, so they're
even more affected. And they've actually just imposed a self
imposed limit on their monthly exports of about eighty thousand
tons to try and keep.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
That under control and not run out of quota by
the middle of the year.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
But last we normally to China. I think this year's
China we sold about two hundred and seventy thousand tons,
so we're well over. You only put about one hundred
and sixty five thousand tons in, so you actually don't
even use your current quota, So I'm not seeing it's
going to affect you that much. But certainly for us,
we would be normally anticipate to the quota would only
(02:02):
be around about two thirds of the amount of beef
that we would.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Send over there, So that's going to have some effect.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Homish, Yeah, we'll look and follow that closely. Bit of
the status quo from the Kiwi. In latest Australia Day
Lamb ad hits the spot.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Ah, that's it's awesome. You should google that and have
a look. I've sent a copy across to Michelle say
she may put a link up on your Facebook page.
But it's an awesome ad based around the new statistics
that say we dropped out of the top ten favorite.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
Places to live in the world, and of course.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Taking note of that and saying, well, you know, but
Lamb is the cure. A fantastic ad full of puns
and humor. Same Sam Kekeovich hosting it.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
You'll love it. And of course that's the highlight of
the Lamb sales in the year.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
They go up about twenty five percent based on that
ad around Australia Day. It's been one of the most
successful campaign for any agricultural product in Australian history.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Homish Yeah, oh, fantastic, looking forward to having a look
at that. Now, Look, everything affects everything, doesn't it. When
we talk about the effect of the Iranian tensions, that's
going to have a bit of a flow on potentially
quite significant for Australian agriculture.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Well not only Australia, I think globally.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
You might think that you know, Iran is a hell
of a long way away, but you've got to remember
they produce about ten percent of the world's urea and
you know, of course largely on the base of how
energy intensive urea production is. In fact, we've got factories
in Australia to shut down because the energy just doesn't
make it viable to produce urea in Australia. But so
(03:44):
you know, if we actually switch off these urea plants
o or switch off access these urea plants in Iran,
and that's certainly going to be a big disruption to
our fertilizers supply. And you can't just turn on factories
over in other countries. So I think that's probably the
single biggest effect that we're likely to see. We don't
(04:07):
shift that much stuff there, and what we do will
find outher markets for but there's not much we can
do about that. And I imagine New Zealand will have
the same problem.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Hamish, Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now, how's the talks with
the EU going over a free trade agreement. How's that
looking for Australia at the moment.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Well, look, they're pretty keen to accelerate these Unlike New Zealand,
Australia has jacked up at about the naming issues for
things like prosecco and feta and parmesan and so on.
We just said that we're just not going to do that.
So and of course we al also want a much
(04:47):
better access for our agricultural goods, so we're not getting that.
There's really nothing in it for Australia.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Now.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
I know New Zealand's sort of bitting the bullet and
sort of taking a pragmatic view that's better to have
agreement than no agreement, but we have done that. Of course,
Europe would love to get TARA free access of their
motor cars in particular into Australia, and they also want
access to our mineral sands, you know, these rear earths
and all these things that we keep hearing about that
(05:14):
have become so critical in the production of electric cars
and so on. So there is pressure from both sides
to get a meeting, but at the moment both sides
are implacable. The other issue with Europe is there's twenty
seven members that have all to agree to it as well,
so it's even if you do get an agreement between
the EU Commissioner and our Trade Minister Don Farrell, you know,
(05:36):
it's sitting and it takes.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Some time to get around those twenty seven.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
People and talk them into it because they've all got
their own interest at heart, despite them being trading as
a single block. So I'm not all that optimistic that's
going to happen unless we just cave in, which I
think would be a terrible thing. There's no point in
having one if we don't get better access for our
Australian agricultural goods.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
And certainly some.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Of these name things they're required for just Bricati Prosecco,
for example. I actually named the town after the wine
retrospectively in and out claiming naming rights.
Speaker 3 (06:07):
That's ridiculous. So I just.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Don't see that being something that we're going to give
in either. But both the ministers are saying, well, we
need to get on with it, and that's certainly true.
But you know, all these subsidies that they have in
Europe are very expensive. It's an implacable problem over there politically, yep.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Chris almost going to wrap it up, but there's this
sort of a feel good but sand story at the
same time about a cow that ended up What eighty
k's out to see because we've heard a lot about
the heat and the fires, but not so much about
those floods up north.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yeah, well that's we've had big floods up there from
a cyclone that went through.
Speaker 3 (06:45):
And one of the survival stories that we've heard ab
out of this they reckon.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
They've lost around about fifty thousand head of cattle so far,
which is not as much as the big losses they
had back in twenty twenty one, fifty thousands a lot,
but one cow called up in Queensland, a heifer belonging
to a bloke called who goes under the name of
Lizard Seymour. His name, his probab name's Michael, but he
(07:11):
calls himself Lizard. They had six hundred and fifty millimeters
of rame as from this cyclone Kogi, and he lost
a fair few head of cattle, about seventy head, and
he'd sort of given up on them a bit until
he got a rang from the Mackay Police to say
that an eleven month old ren Brangus heifer had been
washed washed off up on the beach and was sitting
on the beach waiting to be rescued.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Now that's how that's true. That well, it is true.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Had gone over three weirs, Marani, Marion and doubleton Ware
down to the mouth of the river eighty kilometers out
the sea, and then the returning tired had brought her
back in and shoved on the beach. Now, as you
can imagined, she was pretty naked, but her brother went
down there with a trailer. His brother went down there
with a trailer, picked her up bord a home or
just sent a picture over online and she looks as
though she's going to be back on the farm, you know,
(07:58):
with her first carves sometime this year.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
So that's an amazing story.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
There we go. Love a good, amazing, feel good story.
To wrap it up, that's our Australia correspond at Chris Russell.
Thanks very much, Chris.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
No worries imn
Popular Podcasts
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.
iHeartOlympics: The Latest
Listen to the latest news from the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Milan Cortina Winter Olympics
The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina are here and have everyone talking. iHeartPodcasts is buzzing with content in honor of the XXV Winter Olympics We’re bringing you episodes from a variety of iHeartPodcast shows to help you keep up with the action. Follow Milan Cortina Winter Olympics so you don’t miss any coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and if you like what you hear, be sure to follow each Podcast in the feed for more great content from iHeartPodcasts.