Agriculture Minister Murray Watt on July 17, 2024 took an early opportunity to defend Australia’s live sheep exports by the sea ban at the Global Food Forum in Brisbane.
Brisbane in northeast Australia is hosting over 400 world agricultural leaders to discuss innovations and technology in farming. The differently-themed forum nevertheless presents Australia with an opportunity to defend the ban two weeks after it passed into law.
Hence, Mr. Watt cited how live exports have declined by 90% in two decades while packed meat shipments have quadrupled.
Sea-bound live sheep shipments slumped from 6.5 million head in the 2001-02 fiscal year to 652,000 in the 2022-23 period.
Debate on Australia’s Live Sheep Export Ban
Debate has attended the government’s mid-May 2024 announcement of a May 2028 end of live sheep sea exports over animal welfare concerns.
This was in fulfillment to a 2022 election promise by Murray’s administration to phase out live sheep conveyance by sea.
On a conciliatory note, the government also set aside A$107 million ($72.096 million) to affected farmers.
Since then, an Independent Panel has been reviewing the ban progress and farmers have aired views on an official page. According to ministerial data, 70% of West Australians on the debate page said they supported the ban.
However, this leaves out many others who fear meat price uncertainty and development slowdown in towns that depend on sheep trade.
The latest major development was on July 1, 2024 when the country passed the live sheep export phaseout amendment into law.
After the passing of the law by the Senate and the House of Representatives, sheep farmers erupted with dissenting views.
In summary, Australia intends to end live sheep shipments by the sea, hence the persuasive address position in Brisbane. To learn more about the country’s larger sheep facts, below are complementary statistics.
Australia Sheep Statistics
The sheep industry in Australia is one of the biggest globally and a source of income for many ranchers. According to the United Nations, Australia had 68,047,402 head of sheep in 2021, the third biggest worldwide. In contrast, China had the biggest flock in 2021 at 186,376,976 followed by India at 74,285,168 head.
Which is the biggest sheep region in Australia?
The Western region of Australia leads in sheep rearing nationwide with an industry, worth A$1.35 billion ($909.23 million) in 2022.
How much packed sheep meat (mutton) does Australia export per year?
According to the World Bank, Australia led frozen boned sheep meat exports in 2021 at 62.789 million tonnes, worth $456.41 million. In comparison, neighboring New Zealand came second the same year with half the volume, at 31.186 million tonnes.
What is Australia’s ranking in live sheep exports?
Though phasing out its live sheep exports by sea by 2028, Australia is still among the top 10 exporters. In 2022, the Oceania country ranked 7th (when including the leader, the European Union, as one) with 524,908 head of sheep worth $56.906 million. Comparatively, the EU topped exports at 2,811,770 head followed by Romania at 2,290,240 head.