Australia to resume livestock trade with Saudi

RIYADH - Australia agreed to resume livestock trade with Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, nearly two years after suspending exports to its biggest market when the Gulf Arab state rejected a ship carrying thousands of live sheep. 

Agriculture ministers from both countries signed an accord designed to avoid a repeat of the "ship of shame" incident when a cargo of 58,000 unwanted Australian sheep wandered the seas for three months after being turned away by Saudi Arabia.  

The memorandum provides for quarantine holding facilities at Saudi Arabia's Jeddah port where disputed cargoes can be unloaded instead of being forced back out to sea.  

The deal will "enable the resumption of live animal trade between between Australia and Saudi Arabia" with immediate effect, Australian minister Warren Truss said at a signing ceremony with his Saudi counterpart Fahd Bilghoneim.  

Australia's livestock export industry, the largest in the world, was shaken by the row with Saudi Arabia which led to a suspension of exports in August 2003.  

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia bought around 1.8 million head of sheep from Australia in 2002, nearly 30 per cent of Australia's total live sheep exports that year. 

"I wouldn't expect those numbers to return in the immediate future but certainly we would expect Saudi to be again a very important market for Australian live animals," Truss told Reuters after the signing in Riyadh. He said drought had hit the size of Australia's flock, while increasing demand for lamb and mutton meant "there is competition in the saleyard".  

"It won't be as easy to assemble large numbers of sheep for the live trade as has been the case in the past. Nonetheless the live trade is still a very important industry for Australian farmers and I'm optimistic the numbers will build up quickly."  

Trade could resume once Australia amended export regulations, something which could be done "within a week or two", Truss added. 

Bilghoneim said Saudi Arabia had established a quarantine facility close to the Red Sea port of Jeddah, where any certified shipment from Australia will be allowed to dock.  

"If there are any questions or doubts this shipment will be unloaded but it will go directly to the quarantine facility," Bilghoneim said. 

Saudi Arabia rejected the cargo of 58,000 sheep in August 2003 after a port inspection produced an assessment of unacceptably high levels of disease -- a judgment strongly rejected by Australia. 

The animals were then turned away by other ports in the Middle East until finally they were accepted by Eritrea after three months at sea in sweltering Gulf summer temperatures, during which animal welfare groups protested their treatment.  

Truss said Wednesday's agreement will help resolve any future disputes and ensure a "satisfactory animal welfare outcome".  

- REUTERS