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5 National livestock export performance reports
Each year Richard Norris and Greg Norman produce a summary report of livestock export performance as a separate MLALiveCorp report that details summary
statistics for livestock exported and mortality rates. The reports provide a valuable chronology of performance and include some breakdown by various characteristics.
These reports were assessed to develop summary statistics for sheep exports.
5.1 Summary of sheep numbers
Figure 5.1: Number of sheep exported by sea from Australia to all destinations since 1985. From Norris and Norman 2010.
Historical data indicates that the live export trade in sheep from Australia peaked in the 1980s when the annual total number of sheep exported from Australia ranged
between 7 and 8 million.
This review will focus on the more recent period from the late 1980s and particularly from the late 1990s since this coincides with availability of more detailed data on risk
factors associated with mortality.
Since the late 1980s, the long term trend in sheep exports shows a gradual decline with large fluctuations over shorter periods see Figure 5.1. The major fluctuations
and particularly the large declines in 1990-1991 and 2003-2004 are due mainly to cessation of trade to Saudi Arabia with other factors such as drought and sheep
availability and changes in market forces playing additional roles.
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Figure 5.2: Number of sheep exported by sea to the Middle East from Fremantle, Portland and Adelaide since 1990. From Norris and Norman 2010.
The highest total number of sheep exported by sea in a single year in the period since 1990 was in 2001 with more than 6.5 million sheep exported. The annual total
for 2001 represented a 24 increase from 2000 but the relative increase by port of loading was much larger for Adelaide 273 increase over 2000 and Portland 74
increase over 2000 than at Fremantle decline by 3 compared with 2000, as shown in Figure 5.2.
It is important to recognise that while Western Australia consistently accounts for the majority of sheep exported from Australia, there are significant variations in the
numbers of sheep exported at different times from the other two ports Adelaide and Portland.
There was a 12 decline in total sheep exported from 2001 to 2002. However, when broken down by port of loading there was a substantial decline in sheep loaded at
Fremantle 26 drop from 2001, a 12 rise at Adelaide and a 1 rise at Portland.
There was a further 24 decline in total sheep exported from Australia in 2003 45 drop at Portland, 37 drop at Adelaide and 11 drop at Fremantle, and an
additional 27 decline from 2003 to 2004.
The cessation of the Saudi trade in August 2003 was a major contributor to the decline in sheep exports in this period but there were additional factors operating
including a major drought across much of Australia in 2002-2003 with reductions in sheep numbers and upward pressure on prices as well as uncertainty in Middle East
markets associated with the Iraq war and with concerns in other countries over the suspension of live exports to Saudi Arabia.
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Exports to Saudi Arabia re-commenced in July 2005 and contributed to the increase in total sheep numbers exported for the 2005 year and particularly to an increase in
numbers for the second half of that year.
The age of sheep exported has also consistently fallen through the late 1990s and early 2000s and this has been attributed to general reductions in sheep numbers as
well as changing flock structures to favour lamb production rather than wool production.
Since 2005, there has been less large scale fluctuation in total sheep numbers exported.
5.2 Summary statistics for mortalities
