Livestock exporter’s bid to get back in the business

The livestock exporter that triggered the crisis in Australia’s live sheep trade to the Middle East is trying to save its reputation.

The livestock export company that triggered the crisis in Australia’s live sheep trade to the Middle East is launching a rearguard action to save its reputation and the live export industry.

Perth-based Emanuel Exports says it has adopted a new ‘‘transparency project’’, even though the company had its ­licence to export cancelled last June over sheep deaths and squalid conditions captured aboard its contracted vessel, the Awassi Express, in 2017.

Company representatives yesterday accompanied state and federal MPs and farmers as 71,000 sheep and 312 cattle were being loaded aboard the vessel Al Shuwaikh, which departed for Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates last night.

Emanuel Exports managing director Nicholas Daws said the site tour was important “for key decision makers and suppliers to better understand the trade”.

“We want to be more open, and for the community to understand the valuable contribution sheep producers and exporters make,” he said. However, a spokesman for Emanuels told The Australian that yesterday’s tour of the sheep-loading facility was not open to the media.

The company also released a video featuring its new veterinarian and ‘‘corporate governance officer’’, Holly Ludeman, who says livestock export “can be dirty, dusty and smelly, but it’s not cruel”.

Dr Ludeman is a former compliance manager with Livestock Shipping Services, which paused its trade over the northern summer citing the commercial impact of the federal government’s new regulations that limit on-board sheep numbers and require larger pen sizes.

In a company statement yesterday, she said she recently sailed on a sheep consignment from Australia to Kuwait as part of a “transparency project” to collect animal welfare data and footage of all aspects of the supply chain. She said the exporters, Kuwait Livestock Transport and Trading, and its licence-holder, RETWA, “opened their doors and allowed me to review, film and interview all aspects of the supply chain for the real story”.

Emanuels confirmed the company was still heavily involved in the live trade, despite losing its licence to export.

Emanuels still receives large orders from the Middle East and negotiates the purchase and ­delivery of sheep to licensed exporters.