Farmers say lack of WA abattoirs to shift to sheep meat exports over Government’s plan to end live trade

Farmers in WA say there are barriers to them shifting to sheep meat exports, including a lack of abattoir capacity, despite new data showing an increase in overseas markets opting for chilled meat. The West Australian has obtained figures from the Agriculture Department that reveal nearly $458 million worth of the State’s sheep meat has been flown to countries in the Middle East since mid-2020, compared to almost $260 million of live sheep by sea. WAFarmers chief executive Trevor Whittington has labelled it a “flawed argument” because of the price of live sheep going from $100 a head to about $30 as a result of drought, restocking in the Eastern States and Government restrictions on exports. “The Government can’t use the price of sheep as an indicator because climatic conditions have driven down the price,” he said. “Everything has changed now that the Saudi Arabia market has reopened.” December was the first month Australia started exporting live sheep to Saudi Arabia in more than a decade. Since then, it has bought $418,500 worth of live sheep from WA, department data shows. Labor has pledged to phase out live sheep exports in the past two Federal elections, following the deaths of about 2400 sheep on a ship from Fremantle to the Middle East in 2017. How and when it will happen is still to be determined but the Government is expected to encourage farmers to transition from live sheep to chilled meat. However, in a Coalition-authored report the Government refused to allow to be presented in Parliament on Monday, a Perth-based farmer said not all of WA’s stock could be processed in the State. More than 25,000 head a week was being sent to South Australia, putting pressure on the domestic market. The report, exclusively seen by The West, states there was also “a huge backlog of mutton and lamb both to be killed in WA and/or shipped interstate”. Mr Whittington said there were only two major commercial processing facilities in the State: Katanning and Albany. “There’s not the capacity in the supply chain,” he said. “There’s a lack of workers, housing and air-freight capacity to handle any more processed meat.” Fremantle MP Josh Wilson said the live sheep trade had declined more than 90 per cent in the past 20 years. “It has been replaced by a stable, humane, higher-value, and higher-jobs form of sheep meat exports that is already worth 58 times more than the trade it has virtually replaced,” he told Parliament. “We know there has been a serious and proper engagement from the farming community in WA as part of the consultation process that has been carried out under this Government and under (Agriculture) Minister (Murray) Watt.” SA Liberal MP Rowan Ramsey, who led seven meetings in WA earlier this month to discuss the live sheep export ban with industry, said the phase-out decision had destroyed confidence in the sheep trade. “This Government is oblivious to the havoc it has created in WA — the loss of confidence in the industry, the long-term damage its actions are causing and the fact that it refuses to meaningfully engage with the industry,” he said. “Local markets are overwhelmed and prices are at decadal lows with 200 sheep not receiving a bid or an offer at the Katanning sales on the day the committee visited.” O’Connor MP Rick Wilson was furious in Parliament on Monday over the Government’s decision to block the report and submissions made by the more than 600 people who turned up to the committee meetings. “This is the Government running scared from West Australian farmers, who are telling them how their world will look after its policy is introduced,” he said. “It’s an absolute disgrace, and I call on West Australian farmers to keep fighting to the bitter end on this issue.”