Does Consumer Interest in the Live Export Trade Affect Australian Meat Demand?

The long-distance transport of live sheep, cattle and goats by ship from Australia to Asia and the Middle East is an ongoing, contentious issue in Australia due to concern for the welfare of the animals during and after the voyage. This concern has been driven by internet-based and televised campaigns against animal cruelty which have triggered a significant reaction of anger from the Australian public. This study investigates a novel method of capturing and measuring the impact of these concerns on Australian meat demand. This is done by incorporating an aggregated live export Google Trends index as a proxy for consumer response to live export information in a demand system for Australian meat. This study provides an alternative method for capturing consumer response to non-traditional demand shift variables and provides insight into how Australian meat demand is affected by interest in the live export trade, as well as price, income, seasonality and pre-committed consumption.