Australia-Live Shipping trade still good.

AUSTRALIA-LIVE SHIPPING TRADE STILL GOOD.

DEMAND for fresh Australian sheep meat in the Middle East is all but recession proof, according to one market expert.

Meat and Livestock Australia’s Middle East manager of livestock services Peter Dundon described the region’s demand for fresh meat as "unquenchable".

He said the value, quality and health status of fresh Australian sheep meat over product from competing African and South American nations and China meant it would remain a favourite in the Middle East.

"Put simply, the demand far outstrips supply," he said.

Mr Dundon said Australian fresh lamb and mutton would continue to appeal to lower-income buyers as the best-value fresh protein in the market.

"The Australian sheep is the heaviest in the market and, on a cents-per-kilogram basis, can be half or even a third of the price of Arabic sheep meat in peak religious festivals," he said.

"Australian sheep meat is feeding the masses."

Such was the cultural importance of fresh meat and the region’s dependence on live export, Mr Dundon said government subsidies to ensure the availability and affordability of fresh meat would continue.

"Their concept of fresh meat is similar to an Australian’s view of fresh seafood, bread or milk," he said.

Mr Dundon is based in Bahrain, where Australia supplies 99 per cent of fresh sheep meat, most via live export.

"Here, ’fresh’ is regarded as slaughtered last night, eaten today," he said.

Mr Dundon said other Gulf countries were highly dependent on the supply of Australian sheep meat via live export and that the biggest constraints for live export were supply and shipping capacity.

Last year, Australia shipped 4.2 million sheep for a net worth of $321 million to the Middle East, he said.

ABARE predicts live sheep exports will decline to 3.5 million head in the next two years due to a drop in the number of adult sheep in the national flock and the falling proportion of non-breeding sheep.

Live sheep exports are projected to increase gradually, in line with total sheep numbers to 3.7 million from 2011 to 2013.

Australia’s live sheep export industry accounts for 11 per cent of the total number of sheep turned off, about 13 per cent of its value and 7 per cent of the industry’s total output value (wool, meat and live trade combined).