Sheep export rules tweaked for Northern Hemisphere summer, Red Sea a go
The rules for moving live sheep around the world have been changed — depending on where they’re being sent. Full details here.
Live sheep export rules have been tweaked for the Northern Hemisphere summer affecting shipments leaving Australia from May on.
But the arrangements have been left unchanged for Australia’s major live export customer, Kuwait which took 52 per cent of all sheep exports in 2020-21 or 314,623 sheep.
Exporters can now send live sheep to or through the Red Sea from June 1 to June 14, a period where exports were previously prohibited.
There have also been changes to sheep exported to specific countries in a tight 10 day period from May 22 until May 31.
Additional conditions for live sheep exported to Persian Gulf destinations (including Qatar but not Kuwait and Oman) during this time include a shorter fleece length and maximum weight (56kg for Merinos), increased ventilation and pen space.
A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment said the department was reviewing sheep exports by sea to, or through, the Middle East during the Northern Hemisphere summer.
“As an interim measure to continue to manage heat stress risks and to provide sufficient time for the industry to prepare for the 2022 Northern Hemisphere summer, the Export Control (Animals) Rules 2021 were amended,” the spokesman said.
“The changes are based on updated climatology data … (which) indicated an increased heat stress risk (above the threshold set in 2020) for voyages to some Persian Gulf destinations in late May and a reduced risk for voyages to or through the Red Sea during early June.”
The changes come after a stakeholder review earlier this year, with the report due to be finalised by the end of June.
“The Department will contribute funding and also work with LiveCorp and the industry on new research during permitted periods in the Northern Hemisphere summer,” the spokesman said.
“The research will further ascertain and align sheep physiological and behavioural changes observed during a voyage with other data.
“This will include additional on-board data collection including using automated rumen data loggers to continuously measure sheep core body temperature.”
Meanwhile a project determining community sentiment over live export showed 77 per cent of those surveyed believed the industry made an important economic contribution to Australia.
The findings, from a survey of 5000 Australians, showed 33 per cent of those questioned agreed or strongly agreed that the live export “bothers me a lot” but this was down 6 per cent on a previous study in 2019-20.
About 35 per cent of those surveyed believed the export industry was prepared to change its practices in response to community concern and it was the voyage and the processing overseas which were considered the areas of greatest concern.
In the 2020-21 financial year, Australia exported 910,446 cattle, 603,048 sheep and 15,008 goats, valued at about $2 billion.
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