Port of Townsville welcomes first live cattle export cargo ship for 2021
The Port of Townsville has welcomed its first live cattle export ship of the year.
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The Port of Townsville has welcomed its first live cattle export ship of the year.
Livestock carrier Ganado Express docked at the port on Wednesday afternoon to load approximately 2,500 head of cattle aboard.
The ship will depart for Haiphong in Vietnam on January 10.
A Port of Townsville spokesman said the live cattle export industry was worth more than $300m to the North Queensland economy per year.
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“The Port of Townsville is the largest live export port in Queensland and we see farmers and exporters utilising our port from all across Queensland and the NT,” he said.
“The trade is also important to a number of overseas countries who rely heavily on imports of Australian livestock to meet their protein needs and ensure their overall food security.”
Figures released by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment show the Port of Townsville exported 250,236 slaughter and feeder cattle internationally from January to November 2020.
Townsville Port shipped more cattle overseas than any other port in Australia in the 2019-20 financial year exporting 395,628 cattle.
Cattle were shipped to Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines.
Indonesia was the biggest importer of cattle from Townsville in the 2019-20 financial year offloading 196,377 head of cattle.
In recent years the integrity of the live exports industry has come under fire for malpractice with the Australian Government suspending live trade to Indonesia in 2011.
Townsville Against Live Exports president Rebecca Smith said the welfare of the animals should be the top priority for the industry.
“Our cattle are like wild animals who have had no positive interactions with humans,” she said.
“They are crammed into pens on the ships and forced to lie in their own excrement while suffering the listing of the ship in heavy seas.”
Australia produces 3 per cent of the world’s beef supply and is the third largest beef exporter in the world behind Brazil and India. In the 2019-2020 financial year, 1,298,912 head of cattle was exported from ports around Australia.
Originally published as Port of Townsville welcomes first live cattle export cargo ship for 2021
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