Indonesia could offer live sheep opportunities

LiveCorp chairman Troy Setter said there was reasonable demand for live sheep in Indonesia and if protocols were developed that would ease the way to grow the industry.

"There are breeder sheep and breeder goats that go in there, but we've seen an increase in demand recently particularly from Northern Indonesia, but there's no current protocols for feeder or slaughter sheep or goats to Indonesia," he said.

"They have been working on it for a while and there's been a bit of recent spurred interest in it.

"There's a huge market opportunity, there are more than 270 million people, the vast majority who are Muslim so they don't eat pork.

"All markets so small so it's a pretty exciting opportunity."

Australian Livestock Exporters Council CEO Mark Harvey-Sutton said at present sheep can be sent to Indonesia on a permit by permit basis, but protocols would be a step forward.

"We would support any new market for sheep to access, particularly for breeder and slaughter," he said.

"But we can't just focus on Indonesia, we have to remember we have countries like Egypt and Morocco knocking on our door seeking sheep as well.

"All of this points to this not being a declining industry and one that's incredibly important for food security for all these countries.

"We are fielding inquiries constantly and what we have been looking to do through our protocol prioritisation process, which a function between industry and government, is make sure these countries are top of the list in terms of government to government negotiations."

Mr Harvey-Sutton said even with the government's plans to phase out the export of live sheep by sea, there should be no barrier to developing new protocols.

"The government to government protocols do not specify the mode of transport and as we know, the government is not looking to phase out air shipments so these markets remain viable, whether the government is successful in implementing its ban for sheep by sea or not," he said.

A Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry spokeswoman said the department regularly engages with the livestock export industry to discuss market access priorities.

"Market access for sheep and goats to Indonesia was prioritised at the last meeting with industry earlier this month, however negotiations have not commenced," she said.

"A formally negotiated protocol between two countries is not mandatory for trade to occur.

"If exporters can meet the requirements under the Export Control Act 2020, trade can occur.

"This could include importing countries issuing an import permit with animal health conditions."

The spokeswoman said the government is still considering the independent panel's report on how and when the phase out of live sheep exports by sea could be implemented.

"The report and next steps will be released in due course," she said.