Forensic look at statistics from Meat and Livestock Australia

Live-sheep exports by sea in 2023 increased 22 percent or 107,191 head, to 593,514. That’s the only annual increase in live-sheep-export numbers in the past five years; it’s the largest year since 2020.

• For the fourth year in a row Kuwait was the largest importer of live Australian sheep by sea, receiving 271,162 head in 2023 – 46 percent of total sheep exports.

• Kuwait was followed by Israel, importing 16 percent of live-sheep exports or 94,000 feeder animals.

• Jordan, the third-largest importer of sheep in 2023, had the largest increase in exports – increasing by 411 percent or 84,376 head year-on-year.

• The UAE, Oman and Qatar remained in the mix, importing a combined 25 percent of the market – 143,876 head.

Live-cattle exports by sea increased 12 percent or 73,612 head from 2022 to 2023 – 597,179 head in 2022 to 670,791 in 2023.

• Indonesia remained the largest importer of live cattle by sea in 2023, with 359,305 or 54 percent of live exports going into their predominantly feeder market. Those numbers remained relatively stable year-on-year, increasing just 6 percent.

• Vietnam imported 19 percent of total live-cattle exports by sea or 126,930 head – split between slaughter, breeder and feeder cattle. That’s a 118 percent increase from 2022 in exports to the country.

• China imported 12 percent of exports at 78,723, a 44 percent decrease compared to 2022 export numbers.

• Israel has the largest year-to-year shift, increasing export numbers by 149 percent to 68,393 head – 10 percent of total live-cattle exports by sea.

• Countries importing the remaining 6 percent were Malaysia, Jordan, Brunei Darussalam, Sarawak, Thailand, Sabah, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.