New powerhouse of the live sheep export trade revealed

The EU dominated the live sheep trade only three years ago, but two African countries have recently ratcheted up their demand.

Africa has overtaken Europe as the powerhouse of the live sheep exporting industry, while Australia continues to wind down its involvement in the trade as the 2028 ban looms large.

Sudan has replaced Romania as the world’s most dominant live sheep exporting nation, with an almost five-fold increase in the number of sheep sent offshore between 2021 and 2023 to almost 9.62m animals.

Analysis of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation’s latest figures show Sudan and Somalia, both with just the Red Sea separating them from major Middle Eastern markets, are the biggest players globally.

Just four years ago, of the top 10 largest live sheep exporting nations, more than half of the trade originated in Europe, with Romania, Spain, France, Portugal and Hungary the biggest players. Australia came in fifth place.

When the Albanese Government legislated to ban the export of live sheep by sea from Australia last year, critics argued that countries with inferior animal welfare standards would pick up the slack as Australian exporters exited the trade.

Australia introduced stringent animal welfare regulations in 2011 in response to the airing of an ABC program revealing the poor treatment of Australian cattle in Indonesia abattoirs.

Despite its loud proclamations of some of the highest animal welfare standards in the world, the European Union has no control system in place for transporting animals to non-EU countries, while it is unclear whether there are any animal welfare provisions in place in African countries.

Livestock market analyst Matt Dalgleish said drought in Sudan and Somalia may go some way in explaining those markets’ rise in the industry, “so some is drought base turn off”.

But proximity to the Middle East, home to the biggest buyers of live animals, and low prices put Africa in a prime position to dominate the trade as Australia left the industry.

While many criticise the trade shifting from Australia to Africa, Australian Alliance for Animals co-founder Jed Goodfellow said animal welfare issues such as heat stress were less of an issue for animals coming from the east of the continent compared to Australia.

“If you look at the map, Sudan is literally less than a day’s trip to Saudi Arabia and those sheep are acclimatised to the humidity in that part of the world. Whereas Australian sheep, they endure much more significant climatic changes,” Dr Goodfellow said.

Major live sheep export players by origin country.

Live exports of sheep from Australia have halved in the past five years, with the latest industry figures for the 10 months to the end of April showing a steep decline in the trade.

Live sheet exports dropped 37 per cent to 430,505 animals last year, with a 41 per cent fall in export value to $43.8m, according to the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Australian Live Exporters’ Council chief Mark Harvey-Sutton said there were several factors contributing to the drop since 2020 including exporters self-imposing a three-month moratorium since 2019 to manage heat stress risks during the northern hemisphere summer.

“When you take three months, nearly four out of the shipping calendar, it does have an impact on volumes,” he said. “We also had Covid, which is hard to quantify but it did have an impact on shipping logistics.”

Mr Harvey-Sutton said the industry was waiting to see the impact of the federal government’s ban on live sheep exports, which is set to come into effect in May 2028, and ALEC would continue to oppose the ban.

“Certainly producers in WA are moving away from sheep and that will have a detrimental effect on production,” he said.

Kuwait has traditionally been the biggest market for live sheep. It secured 140,975 sheep for slaughter across six shipments, followed by Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

LiveCorp chief executive Wayne Collier said sheep mortality rates reached a record-low 0.12 per cent last year, which he said was similar to on-farm statistics.

Mr Collier said shipboard data showed leg injuries were a common cause for health treatments, which led to new rubber matting instalments for feedlots, loading ramps and ships to improve conditions.