About the Live Export Trade
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Australia is the world's largest exporter of live sheep and one of the largest exporters of live cattle, by sea, for slaughter. We also export smaller numbers of buffalo and live goats, camels, alpacas and breeding "stock" cattle by air (also some "breeders" by sea.
We have been a major player in the export of live animals since the mid 1970s, when Middle Eastern countries started looking to import and Australia had plenty of sheep to spare. Sheep exports peaked in 1987 with 7.2 million exported and came close again in 2001/2 with 6,257,120 and 6,069,702 sheep exported respectively. Cattle exports peaked in 2014 with over 1 million exported.
Although the live export industry is worth around $1 billion annually, it makes up a tiny percentage of Australia's total exports, at just 0.5%. Ending live exports would not see the loss of that $1 billion, it would see it transferred to the chilled meat export industry (3.4% of total exports) and also see more jobs and profits staying in Australia.
We now export to about 40 countries, mainly in the Middle East and Southeast Asia and our biggest importers are Indonesia for cattle and Kuwait for sheep. See Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA)'s in-depth figures for live exports here.
About 36 ships currently service Australia, loading mainly sheep and cattle and some buffalo, from 12 ports around Australia, with by far the greatest number of cattle exported from Darwin, and the greatest number of sheep exported from Fremantle:
Adelaide SA
Brisbane QLD
Broome WA
Darwin NT
Fremantle WA
Geelong VIC
Geraldton WA
Karumba QLD
Mourilyan QLD
Portland VIC
Townsville QLD
Wyndham QLD
Loading at Fremantle port.
Approximately 70% of all animals exported live from Australia for slaughter in foreign countries will have their throats cut whilst fully conscious, but their fate is not always the worst part of the live export process. Voyages can take up to 41 days (Livestock Shipping Services, 62,857 sheep and 10,237 cattle from Fremantle to Izmar, Turkey, May 2011), depending on point of origin and destination. Average voyage length to Indonesia is eight days and voyages to the Middle East vary between 14 and 34 days, with the average being 25 days.
Over 2.5 million animals have died on route in the last 30 years, and nearly half of those have died from inanition, or failure to eat - they starved to death. The other main casue of death for cattle is respiratory illness, and for sheep, heat stress and salmonellosis. Most animals die in their pens - often a long and painful death - they are not humanely euthanised.
Dead Australian steer aboard the Barkly Pearl, October 2012
There have also been regular mass deaths on board due to delays in unloading, illness, fire, accident or heat events - 4,179 sheep aboard the Bader III in August 2013 die to "an unforseen heat event" in the (Persian) Gulf... because who would expect high temperratures in the Middle East in the middle of summer, right? The latest exposé of one exporter came just this year (2018), from a Pakistani crew member abaord Emanuel Exports-leased vessels. Some of the footage taken over five voyages to the Middle East between August 2017 and February 2018 is below *warning - disturbing images*
FAQ's - The Truth About Live Exports
There are many myths about the live export trade. Here are some commonly asked questions and the truth about live exports.