CANBERRA—A temporary Australian ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia that has now been rescinded has resulted in a marked improvement in animal welfare in export markets, Australia's largest livestock exporter said Thursday.
"What happened in Indonesia, as much pain as it has caused, has brought about an avalanche of improvement," in animal-welfare standards, Steve Meerwald, managing director of Wellard Rural Exports, told a Senate inquiry in Broome, in northwest Australia.
The improvements have been noticeable in export sheep markets in the Middle East, said Mr. Meerwald, whose company operates a fleet of four livestock carriers. "The outcomes have been advanced significantly from what they would have been otherwise," with importers appreciating that a lack of animal welfare could disrupt security of supply, he said.
While cattle exports to Indonesia have resumed, the number of animals being exported is still relatively modest, with livestock vessels being deployed to other markets, in part reflecting the onerous regulations now governing the trade, he said.
Under the new conditions for the trade that ensure the welfare of Australian cattle through the supply chain, including in Indonesian abattoirs, only a handful of Australian exporters have been licensed to operate. These include Wellard, Elders Ltd. and Australian Rural Exports Pty Ltd., or Austrex.
Wellard resumed exporting cattle to Indonesia in August after it received approval mid-month to ship 7,000 animals to two clients from Wyndham Port, the first shipments by the company in 2½ months.
The Indonesian feedlot and abattoir industry has worked hard to meet Australia's new export regulations, Mr. Meerwald said.
Of Wellard's four vessels, one is operating in the U.S. and will stay there for some months, another is now loading in Darwin port, bound for Egypt with heavier cattle, and then will also operate in the North American trade.
A third is loading heavier cattle in Australia bound for the Philippines, and the fourth is loading cattle for Indonesia in coming days at both Townsville and Darwin ports, he said.
"Other exporters have redeployed ships to other markets, some nearby, and they can come back in, but at the moment we're finding it quite difficult to source cattle of Indonesian specifications," which have a limit of 350 kilograms each, Mr. Meerwald said.
A television documentary in late May displaying the mistreatment of Australian cattle sparked the original ban on cattle exports to Indonesia.
Last year, Australia supplied more than 500,000 cattle to Indonesia, where they are fattened and slaughtered, with animals bred in Australia accounting for about a quarter of the total number of cattle killed in its near-northern neighbor.
That trade to Indonesia was valued at more than $300 million Australian dollars ($321 million) last year.
Write to Ray Brindal at ray.brindal@dowjones.com
animal welfare standards, sheep markets, wellard rural exports, darwin port, northwest australia, australian cattle, meerwald, senate inquiry, australian exporters, export regulations, abattoirs, feedlot, export markets, broome, importers, elders, livestock, canberra, avalanche, managing director
No comments:
Post a Comment