The Australian dollar seemed to have something to prove when trading resumed after the Easter break, breezing past US109 cents in two days and briefly breaking the US110c barrier before easing. At the time of writing this article in early May, the Australian dollar had fallen back to US107c. Given that about 60% of Australian beef is destined for export markets, a stronger Australian dollar is generally construed as a negative factor for prices. The Frozen Cow 90CL indicator is representative of thelean beef trim exported to markets such as the US. Figure 1 shows how the 90CL indicator has behaved in Australian and US terms, along with the national average cow price indicator over the past seven years.
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