AACo is one of northern Australia’s largest beef producers. The new Livingstone beef processing facility represents the formation of a new value chain component for the company, the success of which could also help facilitate the broader development of an alternative marketing channel for the northern cattle industry. A speculative analysis of the of the AACo northern beef value chain suggests that it may be difficult to achieve sufficient levels of chain surplus despite an existing high level of coordination between stages. The main obstacles to performance indicated include poor quality transport infrastructure, climate variability, the relatively low value of the specific targeted beef market, and the cost of skilled labour in the region. Potential interventions are suggested, but further analysis will be required after all stages of the value chain become fully operational to confirm the findings of this study, and potentially provide greater evidence for effective targeted interventions.