The other nations ready to fill live sheep trade gaps

According to analysis from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, in 2021 the global live sheep export sector was worth $USD 1.1 billion, with Romania, Spain and Jordan the top live sheep exporting countries by value.

Australia shipped 593,514 head of live sheep in 2023.

The top importers of live sheep were Middle Eastern countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait.

Kuwait has been Australia's biggest importer of live sheep by sea for four years in a row, taking a 46 per cent share of total imports.

Israel and Jordan were the next biggest importers of Australian live sheep.

Episode 3 market analyst Matt Dalgleish said that other significant live sheep exporting nations could benefit from Australia's exit from the market.

"There's quite a big volume in recent years that has gone from Sudan, Romania, even Jordan, which is one that we send sheep to but they then re-export as well to other Middle Eastern countries... with the decline in the Australian share, all of those have seen an increase into the Middle Eastern region," he said.

"None of those countries really have anywhere near the level of welfare standards that Australia insists upon."

Meanwhile Saudi Arabia took an Australian shipment in December for the first time in more than a decade.

Mr Dalgleish said Australia's Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System had seen significant improvements in welfare in Middle Eastern countries importing live sheep.

"Places like Kuwait have invested a lot of money into their receivals and their treatment of when they get in," he said.

"Kuwait takes sheep from Australia under our ESCAS and because they are also taking sheep from other sources, once those sheep get in, even if their shipment on the boat wasn't as good, those sheep have historically been also treated to the same ESCAS requirements.

"So those other sheep benefit from the requirements we insist upon but if Australia is out of the mix, then Kuwait doesn't have to follow ESCAS any more."

Members of Australia's live export industry have repeatedly highlighted problems with animal welfare on ships coming from countries such as Sudan, where the sinking of a ship in port in 2022 saw more than 15,000 sheep drown.

Romanian live sheep exports also came under scrutiny after the livestock carrier Queen Hind capsized in 2019, with the company that salvaged the ship claiming it found secret decks on the sunken vessel.

According to research published in the Bulgarian Journal of Agricultural Science in 2023, Romania's live sheep and goat export value increased by 8.43pc in 2022 compared to 2018.

Australia Livestock Exporters Council CEO Mark Harvey-Sutton said Australia was a revered trading partner by Middle Eastern markets due to its biosecurity, the quality of animals, and its reliability.

"Those markets have indicated that they will continue trading with us," he said.

"It would still be perfectly reasonable of them however, to contemplate alternative sources for sheep.

"I'm sure they will be investigating that... the reality is they are not going to be replacing Australian sheep with Australian processed product.

"Realistically their diversification is going to look to other sheep suppliers and that's really disappointing as an economic opportunity lost to Australia and also disappointing given all the hard work the industry has put in to improve animal welfare in those markets as well."

Mr Harvey-Sutton said trading partners in the Middle East were "mystified" by the decision by the Australian government.

"They cannot understand why Australia would so blatantly put their food security at risk," he said.