Live cattle exports set to boom with Indonesia’s meal pledge

An Indonesian pledge to deliver meals to school-aged children is set to bolster the live cattle export industry.

Live cattle exports are on the rise, with Indonesia’s pledge for more than 80 million meals for school-aged children seen as an opportunity for Australia’s beef industry.

China, Vietnam and Indonesia were the biggest players for cattle live export this financial year so far, with 624,612 sent overseas. There were 746,829 in the 2023-24 financial year.

Australian Live Exporters’ Council chief executive Mark Harvey-Sutton believed final volumes would be higher than the previous few years, due to a high number of shipments particularly to Indonesia.

He said Indonesia would play a significant role for the commodity, as President Prabowo Subianto pledged nutritious meals to each school-aged child.

“Indonesia is going to have to increase its production of not only beef but fresh milk as well,” he said.

“Australia is very well-placed to assist Indonesia with that ambition. I don’t think it was a coincidence that Prime Minister Albanese was in Indonesia the day after he was sworn in.”

Indonesia also largely bought breeder sheep with 2040 stock this financial year, compared to Malaysia (1172), India (491), Philippines (42) and five to Argentina.

There were 85,506 breeding cattle for beef and dairy sent to China in 2023-24, compared with

25,368 so far this financial year.

Mr Harvey-Sutton said a drop in dairy cattle numbers had been mainly attributable to China, the main dairy cattle market, and its prevailing economic conditions.

“With most of our markets it’s not due to a lack of desire or demand, and we should expect should economic conditions change in China,” he said.

There have also been 1437 alpacas journeying overseas, mostly from Melbourne to China by airfreight. Brunei and Indonesia have been key markets for buffalo, with 2948 headed by sea.

Meanwhile, Malaysia has been a significant market for Australian goats, securing most of the 13,531 sent overseas this year. They also ordered 69 camels, and solely used air freight for their camel and goat orders.

“Malaysia is a bit of an underrated market, particularly for sheep. It’s been five or six years since an actual shipment went, it’s all serviced by air freight and sheep and goats are very popular,” Mr Harvey-Sutton said.

“You’re not going to fill a ship full of goats and you can get a substantial volume of goats on a plane.”