Game Birds

Synopsis – Australian Industry

Birds usually referred to as game birds include turkey, goose, duck, pheasant, plover, quail, grouse, partridge, guinea fowl, spatchcock and squab (pigeon). They have been traditionally harvested from the wild but most of the game birds consumed are now raised on farms.

There are game bird industries in all states in Australia but the main producing states are New South Wales and Victoria. In the three years to 2006, slightly more than half of the value of the Australian game bird industry came from turkey production, with the duck sector contributing another 42 per cent. Other game bird production contributed 6 per cent of the total value of the industry.

The Australian game bird industry seems to be highly concentrated. Large vertically integrated meat-chicken companies produce more than three-quarters of Australia’s turkeys; two companies produce virtually all of Australia’s ducks; and a single company produces 75 per cent of Australia’s quails.

Around 10 per cent of Australia’s game bird meat is exported and this is mainly turkey meat. While there has been substantial growth in Australian exports of game bird meat since 1990, the small size of the Australian industry makes it difficult to compete on price with the major world producers.

Annual world production of meat from game birds averaged 10.8 million tonnes in 2005 and consisted mostly of meat from turkeys, ducks, geese and guinea fowl. This puts game bird production at about one-sixth of the size of world chicken meat production. The United States produces nearly half of the world’s turkey meat and China accounts for around two-thirds of world duck meat production.