Indonesia and Malaysia have both lifted their bans on Australian live cattle exports, imposed in late July/early August after a lumpy skin disease scare.
Malaysia was the first to lift the restrictions last week, followed by Indonesia on Saturday, September 9.
The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry said on Saturday it had reached an agreement with the Indonesian Agriculture and Quarantine Agency that its suspensions and restrictions on live cattle and buffalo exports, from a combined seven registered establishments across northern Australia, had been lifted with immediate effect.
This follows technical discussions with Indonesian authorities last week and the provision of negative test results for lumpy skin disease in Australian cattle and buffalo.
The department re-confirmed that LSD has never been detected in Australia and the country remains free from the disease.
Indonesia’s decision to lift the bans was welcomed by the Federal Government and industry.
“Our ongoing freedom from the disease, as well as other pests and diseases, emphasises the success of Australia’s robust biosecurity systems underpinning Australian agriculture trade,” DAFF Agricultural Trade Group acting deputy secretary Nicola Hinder said.
“The department will continue to engage with stakeholders to provide the necessary assurances to our trading partners on our animal health status,” she said.
“We thank our government partners in Indonesia for their continuous cooperation and look forward to resuming the supply of healthy, high-quality Australian cattle to Indonesia.”
National Farmers’ Federation chief executive Tony Mahar welcomed the trade resumption.
“We appreciate this has been a challenging time for the Australian and Indonesian industries as these issues were worked through,” he said.
“We look forward to continuing our long-standing partnership with Indonesia.”
While the Malaysian ban was for all Australian cattle stations, the Indonesian one was for a select few.
A shipment of live cattle bound for Malaysia was due to depart the Northern Territory late last week.
Source: Shepp News