There was a lot of discussion and debate in 2018-19 about the future of live sheep exports from Australia to the Middle East, including multiple government reviews and changing regulations.
The industry did not have up to date, credible information about topics such as employment levels, who worked in and benefited financially from the trade, and the cost to the industry of recent changes to regulation.
This project aims to fill that gap, and provide a factual basis for discussion.
The primary objective of this project is to create a series of reports that:
Identify the economic benefit that flows from the live sheep export trade to farmers and other businesses in Australia
Provide an economic analysis of the industry’s self-imposed three-month moratorium on exporting sheep to the Middle East in the northern hemisphere summer
Provide an analysis of farm-level decisions which influence the size of the sheep flock nationally and in Western Australia.
Producing reports containing factual information about live sheep exports will ensure stakeholders are equipped to discuss and communicate the benefit of the live sheep trade to governments and the community, in order to provide a balanced and informed debate about the industry’s future.