The report "Live Cattle Export Trade: Importance to northern and southern Australian beef industries" released today by ABARE shows that in 2000-01 around 70 per cent of producers across northern Australia sold some of their cattle for live export.

Since the early years of this decade, the number of live cattle exported from Australia has fallen due largely to higher Australian saleyard prices and a strengthening dollar. "But beef producers in the core live export areas such as the Northern Territory Top End and Victoria River districts and the Kimberly region of Western Australia continue to rely heavily on the live export trade for a large proportion of their farm receipts," ABARE Executive Director Phillip Glyde says.

"This highlights how the effect of any downturn in these markets or potential disruptions to the live cattle trade would be concentrated on these producers and the economies of these regions."

Australia’s success in meeting the growth in south east Asian demand for cattle was made possible by some important changes to the breeding and management systems of northern Australian properties the report says. Improved farm management systems and the greater use of Bos indicus breeds were major factors.

Source: Blues