Australia-Shortage of suitable sheep for live shipping trade.

AUSTRALIA-SHORTAGE OF SHEEP.

Australia’s declining sheep supply is limiting Australia’s access to the lucrative livestock export market for sheepmeat producers, the Middle East, according to Sheepmeat Council of Australia president Kate Joseph.

Ms Joseph said the Middle East relied heavily on locally processed fresh meat from Australian animals to feed a growing population.

"They are disease-free, healthy and supplied at a competitive per kilogram rate," Ms Joseph said on her return from a recent trip to the region accompanied by Agriculture Minister, Tony Burke.

The pair was part of an industry delegation promoting Australia’s sheepmeat and livestock export trade.

While in the Middle East the Minister for Agriculture, Tony Burke, signed an updated Memorandum of Understanding with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on live animal exports designed to improve the livestock export trade, secure future contracts and create jobs abroad.

"Government support for this trade is high, industry is working together and substantial inroads have been made into improvements in animal health and welfare standards in the Middle East," Ms Joseph said.

"However, the one thing holding us back from cracking this market wide open is our sheep supply."

The national sheep flock has declined by 33pc since 2000 to an estimated 79 million head at June 2008 - the lowest since 1920.

"In Australia we’ve got a lift in the number of lambs sold for slaughter with a shift to prime lamb production at the expense of the wool industry," Ms Joseph said.

"Rebuilding the national flock to supply the Middle East with what it requires in live sheep numbers will take time and this market needs to be valued as a specialist high value market."

Over 4 million sheep were exported to the Middle East in 2008, with Kuwait taking the largest shipments (956,276 head) followed by Saudi Arabia (873,937) and Oman (741,106), contributing A$321 million to the Australian economy.

"Markets like Bahrain, Kuwait and to a lesser degree, Qatar, rely on Australian sheep for almost all of their fresh meat supply," she said.

"The supply of fresh meat to these markets is more of a food access, social and political issue than it is a commercial issue."