BAN ON LIVE EXPORTS COMES AT CONSIDERABLE COST

A ban on the export of livestock by sea will come into effect at the end of April 2023 at significant economic and logistical cost to farmers, the industry and wider economy.

Alex Feng, from Gisborne-based livestock exporting company BeefGen, says according to a ‘Wellbeing Analysis on the Ban on Livestock Exports’ by Infometrics, a ban on the live export trade by sea will cost the New Zealand economy $470m, and farmers who export stock, between $49,000 and $116,000 a year (figures analysed by Livestock Export New Zealand Association).

Mr Feng says the live export trade gave NZ farmers the opportunity to capture a premium for surplus high genetic worth animals and importantly, it took a number of animals out of the processor supply chain every year.

Mr Feng says processors are already operating at capacity and farmers that might have typically sold animals for live export will need to free up space on their farms for extra mouths. He believes this will have a flow-on impact and increase the number of bobby calves sent to slaughter.

“Without the live export trade, it’s estimated that a significant number of additional bobby calves will be sent for processing.”

NZ and Australia combined had an 80% share of the live export trade into China, with South American countries making up the balance. NZ exiting the trade opens up opportunities for Australia and South America to capture more of the market share while denying NZ farmers a source of income.

“Live export could always guarantee farmers a premium price,” says Mr Feng.

According to MPI statistics, NZ exported a record 124,738 cattle to China last year. The majority of these were dairy heifers, but a big percentage were beef breeding animals.

While criticism has been levelled at the live export industry for poor animal welfare standards, Mr Feng says BeefGen has an extremely good animal welfare record and out of 22,738 cattle exported over five consignments, there have only been seven deaths during the 16-to-20-day voyages.

“We have the best practice standards of anywhere in the world and this mortality rate is lower than what would be found in any farm system with that number of cattle.”

He says BeefGen only selected the best vessels for livestock transport and out of the 20-30 available for the purpose in this region, only 10 met BeefGen’s standards.

“These are purpose built with very good ventilation and a good water supply system.”

The company purchased top quality pelletised cattle feed from Australia to feed the animals during the journey and stock were looked after on board by a vet and one stockman for every 1400 animals.

The number of animals being transported at any one time ranged from 3000 to 10,000 depending on the size of the vessel. Cattle for live export were sourced from all over NZ. They were tested on farm to ensure they were healthy before being transported to a quarantine farm where they stayed for a minimum of 30 days. At the quarantine farm they were subject to multiple tests and treatments to ensure they were in optimal health before undertaking the journey.

Seven to 10 days before departure they were transitioned onto the pelletised feed.

BeefGen boats departed from Napier Port and docked at various ports in China, depending on where the cattle were going.

Mr Feng says most of the cattle exported weighed around 250kg.

“These are ideal for live export.”

Typically, they were second-tier animals from a breeding worth point of view, or surplus toptier heifers. These animals were highly valued by the Chinese livestock industry.

The heifers were exported for use in China’s genomic breeding programmes, using genetics from the USA and Canada.

Mr Feng says beef heifers from Australia and New Zealand were particularly sought after for these breeding programmes, with the male offspring going into feedlots for prime beef production. The majority of beef heifers sold in China were Angus, but Simmental was the most popular beef breed, particularly for smaller family farms and would fetch a premium.

As breeding animals, they would spend most of their life indoors with the Chinese cut and carry feed systems but would have access to outdoor areas.

While the ban on live exports only came into effect on April 30, Mr Feng says the industry had already collapsed in NZ with the loss of jobs.

He says while BeefGen will continue to export a small number of very high genetic value sheep and cattle by air, this is a tiny and very niche market.

The company has been working closely with the Livestock Export Association to set up gold standard — best practice live export standards — which offer full transparency to the public. These will be presented to the future government in the hope that the ban will be overturned.