The sheep meat earned the country $500 million more than beef exports, which, at $2.9b, were up 9% in value on the previous year.
Total co-products exports were up 7% to $1.54b, accounting for about 19% of total meat industry export value.
In order of declining value, co-products include hides and skins, edible offals, prepared meat products, meat and bone meal, tripe, casings and tallow.
The Meat Industry Association said China’s sheep meat imports were up 27% to 167,244 tonnes, 42% of the total, and the average of the monthly price achieved was $5.77/kg, more than $1 ahead of the previous year.
Two-thirds of China’s purchases were lamb, averaging $6.06/kg, and a third mutton at $5.68.
Therefore, China’s spending on NZ sheep meats was up a whopping 53% to $993m and up 29% to $639m on beef.
It also bought $139m of cattle hides and sheep skins and overtook Italy as the largest market.
Italy’s purchases of mainly hides declined by 27% to $132m.
Taiwan and Japan also increased their purchases of NZ sheep meats by 67% to $87m and by 31% to $103m respectively.
The associations said most of China’s and Taiwan’s imports were frozen while Japan took 58% chilled. Sheep meat exports to north Asia were up 26% by volume and 50% by value.
The European Union took an unchanged 30% of lamb exports and paid 24% more. Chilled lamb accounted for 40% by value.
Britain took 43% of sheep meats exported to the European Union, followed by the Netherlands 16%, Germany 15% and France 7%.
The price achieved in Britain was $9.30/kg and in the United States, the third-largest sheep meat market, the average value was $14.38/kg, up $2.60 from the previous year.
Red meat exports increased 15% in value to $8.1b in 2017-18 and China took just under $2b worth of products, up 39%. The US accounted for $1.8b, up 13%.
The beef volume increased by 5% to 416,700 tonnes, driven by a 5% increase for North America and 9% increase for north Asia, mainly China.
Both regions paid similar average prices, $6.51/kg in the US and $6.57 in China.
Over the past 15 years the volume of NZ beef exported has remained at 350,000-400,000t annually but the value has doubled from $1.5b to nearly $3b.
Last year the US paid $1.2b, China $639m, Taiwan $172m, Japan $137m, down 7%, and Korea, down 6% and Canada, up 7%, both paid $114m.
China’s volume was up 25% and value up 29% because domestic production couldn’t meet the increasing demand for beef.
Ten years ago NZ exported only 420t of beef to China. Last year it sent 95,000t, equal to 23% of beef exports.
In June 2017 the chilled beef trial began and in the financial year 1896t, worth $16m, were exported.
But now a major Chinese government restructure is delaying progress in certifying more plants for chilled access.
The meat industry and NZ Trade and Enterprise have jointly funded a research project to gain a deeper understanding of China’s port clearance and in-market supply, distribution and cold chain capability for chilled meat.
“It helped identify risks that need to be managed either to minimise food safety and quality risks or capture new business opportunities.”
The association said China is a major beef market for Australia, taking 133,000t, up 38% from the previous year and Brazil at 240,000t, up 40%, which is remarkable growth considering Brazil regained access only in 2015.
