Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has got it wrong again.
His claim today that the live cattle trade represents “less than 10 per cent of the beef exports we do and ASEAN represents less than 10 per cent of the exports that we also make” is simply incorrect.
According to Meat and Livestock Australia, in 2014 Australia’s export of live beef cattle for feeder, slaughter and breeding purposes totalled 1,294,036 head and were valued at A$1.294 billion.
Indonesia was the largest market taking 730,257 head which accounted for 56 per cent of the total of Australia’s cattle exports (including dairy cattle). The second largest market was Vietnam, taking 181,542 head, followed by China, taking 117,906 head.
It’s of enormous concern that the Agriculture Minister could get such a basic fact so utterly wrong.
TUESDAY, 14 JULY 2015
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