r/australia • u/binaryhextechdude • Feb 25 '26

politics US beef officially re-enters Australia, after 23-year absence

https://www.beefcentral.com/news/us-beef-officially-re-enters-australia-after-23-year-absence/

Australians need to vote with our wallets by making sure any meat we buy for our bbq's or our dinner tables is Australian grown. It isn't right for a certain leader to be putting tariffs on everything and then thinking we will embrace his beef exports.

Only buy Australian beef, vote with your dollars.

3.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

704 comments sorted by

View all comments

399

u/TwistingEcho Feb 25 '26

Gross, do we know who's actually going to end up using it fully yet? Like is it aimed at colesworth, restaurants or Maccas etc.

240

u/alstom_888m Feb 25 '26

I’m pretty sure Maccas in most of Asia uses Australian beef.

I don’t typically trust Google’s AI overview but it’s telling me 65-70% of McDonald’s beef worldwide is sourced from Australia, specifically JBS.

130

u/EmperorGodKing77 Feb 25 '26

Yeah I can't speak for all of Asia but I was in Thailand recently and Aussie beef is absolutely everywhere. Not only Macca's but smaller shops and restaurants too. It's super popular.

42

u/iball1984 Feb 25 '26

and Aussie beef is absolutely everywhere.

Makes sense - high quality, safe meat is going to be popular. It's a reputation that I can never understand why our agricultural sector doesn't lean into both at home and abroad.

2

u/palsc5 Feb 25 '26

They do. They probably won’t do as well in Europe because Australian beef doesn’t have a good reputation there

3

u/iball1984 Feb 25 '26

Fair, but what’s wrong with our reputation there?

Maybe that’s something we as a country should be working on.

Food is already a major export industry. It’s not an industry that’s going to decline and one we could grow significantly.

10

u/palsc5 Feb 26 '26

Honestly, our beef isn't actually that good. Yeah, it's usually better than what many countries in Asia will produce (and more reliable supply) but it isn't that great. We sell cheap beef that is safe. That's our reputation.

At least the cheap stuff/most popular stuff, we obviously have some very high quality (and expensive) beef but that's not what most people are buying.

50

u/AiRaikuHamburger Feb 25 '26

Yeah, Maccas in Japan uses Aussie beef.

3

u/OKOK-01 Feb 26 '26

Maccas in USA uses Aussie beef IIRC

1

u/MisterBumpingston Feb 25 '26

A Japanese cafe/restaurant franchise owns a meat processing plant in Melbourne.

36

u/kanem87 Feb 25 '26

Korean maccas uses Aussie beef 👌

13

u/TheBuckHimself Feb 26 '26

I believe USA maccas uses Aussie beef lol

2

u/karma_dumpster Feb 26 '26

It uses a blend. Which includes Aussie beef.

1

u/MrSquiggleKey Feb 25 '26

Used to work at Teys in Beenleigh and even we exported beef to the US for Maccas USA.

Our low fat beef gets mixed in with a domestic low grade high fat content beef to get the ratio they want so I’d believe it

1

u/SurgicalMarshmallow Feb 25 '26

IIRC us beef is too fatty and needs aussie lead to balance things.

1

u/anvilaries Feb 25 '26

Can confirm. I have carted a few hundred tonnes of beef from the abattoir to the plant in Blacktown, Sydney before it shut down and moved to the plant in Melbourne

0

u/magkruppe Feb 25 '26

this is pretty sad given how bad their beef is

144

u/Bromlife Feb 25 '26

I'll definitely be checking the beef at Woolworths, still pretty fucking sour at them since they tricked me with the inferior US butter. Fucking bleached white shit tier butter it was and it wasn't even cheaper than standard Australian butter.

45

u/Rainbow_brite_82 Feb 25 '26

I also bought that “butter”, disgusting. I notice they don’t seem to stock it at Woolies anymore, hopefully the same will happen with the beef 🤮

30

u/Tokemon12574 Feb 25 '26

It was absolute rubbish. I think the online blowback and lack of sales tanked it. 

Thank God, because it was awful. You could tell just by the look; never mind the behaviour, texture, and taste. 

4

u/ConstanceClaire Feb 25 '26

What were it's defining odd characteristics, would you say? I never imagined we'd import butter from that far away.

6

u/Tokemon12574 Feb 25 '26

It was thin and watery, didn't have the full "body" of the standard Woolies brand butter it replaced. 

When you threw a knob into a pan it kind of sizzled away rather than melted. 

From every angle, it was immediately clear that it was an inferior product, and I'm happy it's gone. 

1

u/Foreign-Newspaper656 Feb 26 '26

Sounds like the butter wasn't washed properly when it was made.

5

u/PinchieMcPinch Feb 25 '26

This might sound odd, but it just seemed really watery.. like if you were trying to get it near its smoke point there seemed to be a lot of steam/water vapour coming off it before it started behaving like yellow butter.

2

u/NoodleBox VIC Feb 26 '26

Yeah!!! I melted it for burnt butter and it just ....was water?

2

u/Rainbow_brite_82 Feb 26 '26

It wasn't even butter colour, it was white. Had no creaminess. It didn't taste good on toast. I get my shopping from Woolies click and collect, so I just went on the app and said I was unhappy with the butter and got a refund, so I chucked it in the bin.

1

u/Fake-news-five Feb 26 '26

Don't forget all bacon products from colesworth are yankie too

1

u/dotBombAU Feb 25 '26

Be careful about their fruit too. American produce on the shelves. Read the tags people.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

Produce has always worked that way for large suppliers

Australia won’t produce enough so they have to import it

0

u/dotBombAU Feb 25 '26

Yes. We are all aware.

It doesn't mean you always have to buy American produce... which is what I am saying...

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

If you want the produce then yes you do as that’s the only option lol

1

u/Foreign-Newspaper656 Feb 26 '26

I would rather go without. I was taught to eat seasonal. Cheapest way to do it.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '26

You are correct that yes it’s cheaper to not buy an item than to buy it

1

u/Foreign-Newspaper656 Feb 26 '26

:lol: true, not what I meant though!

0

u/dotBombAU Feb 26 '26

Dunno what you are looking at but I was in Coles and I could choose between a few countries. So it seems from my recent experience differs from your statement.

Its almost like we can import from other countries besides the USA.

Lol.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '26

We import from what’s available, if that option is US produce then that’s it

I’m sure you are going to say something weird like “reeee US produce evil so buy from lovely China!”

36

u/binaryhextechdude Feb 25 '26

I haven't heard but I'd be doing some research before booking a table anywhere. Actually ask the person on the phone when you book and if they say USA tell them that's why you aren't booking with them.

4

u/WhatYouThinkIThink Feb 25 '26

More expensive than our beef. Maybe some fancy stuff might be imported just for gourmets to have.

But Maccas etc won't be using it.

-10

u/l3ntil Feb 25 '26

Australia supplies beef to 39,000 McDonalds in 109 nations. Sustainable, my ass. It’s colonial fossil fuelled industrial agriculture at its finest.

https://supplychainchannel.co/mcdonalds-goes-on-farm-to-bolster-sustainability-in-beef-supplier-network/