Call for live trade review this year

Calls are mounting for a planned review of the Federal Government’s live sheep shipping moratorium to be brought forward by a year to allow sheep to be shipped to the Middle East next June. The first live sheep export boat to leave WA in nearly three months was expected to depart Fremantle by the end of this week, just days after a nearly four-month ban on live sheep exports to parts of the Middle East during the scorching northern hemisphere summer ended on September 15. The Federal Government announced a range of shipping restrictions in April, banning live sheep exports to Kuwait and Jordan from June 1 to September 15. The ban is longer for Oman (May 8 to September 15) and Qatar (May 22 to September 22). The Livestock Collective director Steven Bolt said the successful MV Al Kuwait voyage in June showed the 31/2 month blanket ban needed to be re-examined. The Al Kuwait left Fremantle on June 19, after arriving at the port on May 22 and departing nearly three weeks after the shipping pause started on June 1. Its departure was delayed after 20 of its 48 crew members tested positive for COVID-19. Mr Bolt, a Corrigin farmer, said industry had accepted the need for a pause but he personally believed sheep should still be allowed to be sent during June with reduced stocking densities. “I think for the trade’s sustainability, there will always be a period that we will not be exporting to the Middle East,” he said. “We were supportive of the pause, but we were always very keen that as soon as data was available we would ask for a review. “But I certainly feel the length of time in place currently is not warranted, given the success of the recent Al Kuwait voyage.” The MV Al Kuwait was allowed to leave WA during the moratorium after gaining a special exemption from the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment (DAWE). It departed with 33,341 sheep on board — nearly 40 per cent fewer than the 56,000 originally planned. The remaining 21,000 were sold to local abattoirs. Mr Bolt said allowing some sheep to be shipped in June would be “huge” for producers who missed the season’s winter rainfall break that month and faced expensive feed costs. He said May was too soon to know whether there would be enough rain to grow pasture and feeding sheep for 31/2 months could make a sheep operation unviable. “There was always a strong case that the June period be available to growers,” Mr Bolt said. “It is so important that if we miss the break in the season, those sheep are able to go to live export. “There is ability to reduce the stocking density and monitor the performance of the sheep.” Federal O’Connor MP Rick Wilson, pictured, penned a letter to Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s assistant minister Ben Morton late last month, calling for the moratorium to be reviewed. WAFarmers also wrote to DAWE live animal export division principal regulatory officer Melissa McEwen last month, urging the regulator to “genuinely evaluate the current shipping shoulders” to include early June shipments. The heads of three of Australia’s biggest live export companies also wrote to DAWE. Rural Export and Trading managing director Mike Gordon, South Australian International Livestock Services managing director Andy Ingle and Otway Exports general manager Jim Teasdale sent a jointly signed letter to DAWE secretary Andrew Metcalfe calling for the moratorium to be reviewed urgently. Mr Wilson said allowing some boats to leave next June would be “common sense” after the success of the Al Kuwait’s June voyage. “It is just common sense, it is getting to the time of year when it will be hot, but as the Al Kuwait showed it is possible to have good animal welfare outcomes in June,” he said. “I have written to Minister Morton asking for a review of the regulation of the live export trade, in light of the Al Kuwait’s incredibly successful voyage. “The department (DAWE) is overly bureaucratic, completely risk-averse, and they suffocate rather than facilitate trade.” “It is more important than ever that we have a vibrant live shipping trade to get farmers’ product to market.” WAFarmers livestock section president David Slade said there still seemed to be an attitude by the department to over-regulate. “However, the industry has since gone above and beyond, worked to and has exceeded what was required from a regulatory standpoint,” he said. “This tendency to over-regulate, which is affecting the current viability of the trade — it feels like death by a thousand cuts,” he said. “With all the changes the industry has implemented; the rigorous compliance protocols the exporters must adhere to, the countless measures many exporters have self- implemented — there is no reason why the Ddepartment shouldn’t review the summer prohibition period. “The positive results from the June MV Al Kuwait voyage, prove shipping can continue under altered conditions, and if the exporters are willing to continue working to these altered conditions, then a review must be done, not only for the viability of the trade but for the viability of the WA sheep flock.” A DWER spokesman said the review would be conducted at the end of next year’s moratorium on October 31, and would examine “all data and other relevant information collected on voyages” during the 2020 and 2021 moratorium. He said there were “no plans” to “make changes to next year’s northern hemisphere prohibition conditions”. “To conduct a meaningful review, the department needs an adequate amount of data from multiple voyages by a range of export vessels,” he said. “It is likely there will only by five to seven live sheep export voyages during the entire northern hemisphere summer period. That is insufficient to support a meaningful analysis.”