Stanley Vale Merino Stud - News & Views

Elders says southern beef will be first to China

Posted August 14, 2015 14:32:04

Southern Australian beef producers are expecting to reap the benefits of the new live cattle export deal with China.

Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce announced the Chinese Government had signed the deal, saying it could see one million head of cattle exported to China each year.

Cameron Hall, general manager of live exports for Elders, said southern producers in a bluetongue free zone would be first in line.

"Certainly, in the initial stages, I would expect almost all of the cattle to go to China over at least the next six months would come out of southern Australia," he said.

The bulk of live exports in southern Australia have traditionally been sheep for slaughter in the Middle East.

However, numbers have been tight this year.

Filling the void for live exporters have been high quality stud breeding sheep which are being flown by plane to remote areas of China and elsewhere.

Elders has three planes booked to take sheep to China in September.

Mr Hall said it was an affordable exercise when buyers wanted small numbers.

"With sheep you can load sort of 1300-1400 sheep on a plane," he said.

"That brings the comparative cost per head down, whereas loading the same amount of sheep on a ship, without being able to put significant numbers of additional livestock on board just isn't economic."

Topics: beef-cattle, livestock, sheep-production, agricultural-policy, agribusiness, agricultural-prices, shepparton-3630, melbourne-3000, portland-3305

Original author: Warwick Long

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