RELEASING its ‘Aussie Raw Material Shopping List’ for 2023 today, global burger restaurant giant McDonald’s has revealed it used 80,000 tonnes of Australian beef last year, in both its domestic and international operations.

McDonald’s Australia spent more than $1 billion on Aussie fresh produce and ingredients in its 2023 shopping list, totalling more than 330,000 tonnes in weight. The volume was up by 29,000t on the year before, the company said.

The big ticket item was ground beef used in burger patties, driven by significant demand for Aussie beef from international McDonald’s restaurants, plus consistent purchasing of Aussie produce such as lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers.

The 80,000t of Aussie beef purchased last year for use in Macca’s restaurants included 36,000t used in Australian restaurants and 44,000t used in other parts of the world – either as patties manufactured in Australia and exported, or as frozen boxed trimmings ground and processed overseas.

McDonald’s released a similar set of raw material volume data in 2019, showing significant since then.

Back in 2019 (the first year of COVID, but in fact McDonald’s was much less impacted than other food service operators by the event), McDonald’s was operating 970 stores across Australia. As of April this year, the figure was 1043 stores, a rise of 73 units or 7.5 percent over five years.

Back in 2019 McDonald’s said it used 31,900t of beef in its domestic Australian restaurants. That represents a rise of 4100 tonnes, or 13pc against the figures released this morning.

The Australian beef industry also supplies thousands of other McDonald’s stores across North, South and Central Asia, and other parts of the world, in addition to this figure. Australia will paly an increasingly important role in McDonald’s international requirements as the US beef industry enters its inevitable herd rebuilding phase, having recently hit 60 year lows in its herd size.

Significantly, chicken requirements purchased last year to produce chicken McNuggets and chicken burgers in Australia for domestic consumption totalled 20,000t, representing only 56pc of beef volume.

Among other Australian-sourced items on Macca’s 2023 shopping list were:

• 150,000t of Aussie potatoes for Fries and Hash Browns
• 52 million litres of fresh milk for Sundaes, Shakes, Frappes and Coffees
• 21,000t of Aussie wheat flour for Buns, Apple Pies and Tortilla Wraps
• 1800t of cucumbers for Maccas’ signature Pickles
• 79 million cage-free eggs for McMuffins
• 3900t of lettuce
• 1700t of tomatoes
• 1200t of onions
• 1200t of apples for Apple Slices and Pies

In a statement, McDonald’s Australia’s senior director of supply chain, Tom Mahony, said in 2023 alone, the company served up about 49 million Big Mac burgers to customers across Australia – each featuring  100pc Aussie beef, lettuce, wheat flour, pickles and onions sourced from farmers across the country.

He said the company’s billion-dollar spend in the local supply chain underscored McDonald’s Australia’s support of local farmers and suppliers.

“McDonald’s has proudly supported the local agricultural industry for more than 50 years, sourcing great quality produce, ingredients and products from suppliers and farmers located in every State and Territory,” he said.

Federal agriculture minister Julie Collins said Australian farmers were responsible for growing the very best produce in the world. And it was great to see this quality reflected in the Maccas’ local shopping list which helped to support Australian farmers.

“This will boost local economies across the country, supporting jobs and ensuring regional and rural Australia thrives,” she said.