Live sheep exports: Sharp increase in shipments from Australia during 2023

Kuwait was the biggest destination for Australia’s controversial live sheep trade in 2023. See where else our sheep went.

The number of sheep live exported from Australia rose sharply during 2023, despite ongoing uncertainty over the trade.

Figures from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry show that 565,535 live sheep were exported from Australia between January and November last year, up from 502,758 during the 12 months of 2022. In 2021, 575,529 sheep were exported live after three particularly strong years during 2020 (811,481 head), 2019 (1.1 million head and 2018 (1.2 million head).

The lucrative-but-controversial trade has been under a cloud for years with the Labor government vowing to end the live export of sheep by sea if re-elected at the next federal election, a position farmers say they will fight hard to have overturned.

According to the DAFF data Kuwait was the biggest destination for Australian live sheep in the first 11 months of last year, accounting for 243,458 head, followed by Israel (101,100 head), Jordan (87,975), the United Arab Emirates (59,500 head) and Oman (47,946 head).

Western Australia accounted for clear majority of live sheep exports with 547,979 head exported via ship from Fremantle and a further 8349 breeder and slaughter sheep exported via air from Perth. Almost 6000 sheep were exported by air from Sydney, 2486 from Adelaide and 647 from Melbourne.

These numbers are set to rise once December’s figures are added to form the 2023 total. In December 2022, 59,620 sheep were exported live from Australia.

The number of sheep live exported during 2023 rose significantly.

West Australian farmer and National Farmers’ Federation vice-president John Hassall said the increased live sheep throughput in recent years was proof the sector was “a very viable industry over here”.

“There are some people losing faith in the industry, and it’s not just the live trade thing that was causing our prices to fall. The El Nino or whatever you had in the eastern states with people flogging sheep off as hard as they could meant that there wasn’t a price differential for us,” Mr Hassall said. “We’ve got some really appallingly low prices here so confidence is pretty ordinary. But I think (we can help reverse that) if we can knock the live trade ban on the head – and I think we can win politically – I don’t the government has got any choice (but to backflip on their position). Farmers will target key seats if necessary.”

Total live shipments of all species rose during 2023, accounting for 1.2 million head during the January-November reporting period compared to 1.1 million head for the entirety of 2022. Once December figures are factored in, 2023 could go close to being the biggest year for live exports since 2021 when 1.38 million head were exported. In December 2022, live export numbers amounted to almost 120,000 head.

Live cattle numbers are expected to be similar to last year at around the 600,000 mark. The number of live goats exported during the first 11 months of the year more than tripled to 16,278 head while the number of alpacas exported jumped 220 per cent to 821 head. The number of live buffalo exported during January to November was down 52 per cent on the calendar year 2022 to 5130 head. After four years of no live camel exports, 31 were shipped via air from Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide to China, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Taiwan during the 11-month period.