West Australian sheep producers, and those industries dependent on exporting live sheep by sea, are considering the future following federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt’s deadline to end trade by 2028. Many expect to lose income from the shutdown, but some are already preparing their business to adapt to the coming change.
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00:00 We're a mixed farm, we have 60% sheep.
00:05 Rachel Plowman lives on her family farm near Cojanup, 300km south east of Perth.
00:11 They are one of the many producers impacted by the Federal Government's 2028 ban on live
00:17 sheep exports by sea.
00:19 I think that this industry has by and large lost community support and that's a result
00:23 not just of one incident, of a number of incidents over the last 5, 10, 20 years.
00:29 Jeff Maioti has been trucking livestock around the Great Southern for 35 years.
00:35 He read the writing on the wall when Labor came to power.
00:38 We started diversifying, we've actually cancelled brand new crates that we had ordered.
00:44 Things were changing and you could see it happening.
00:48 Since the timeline was announced, farmers have come out and spoken about how this will
00:52 not only directly impact them, but an entire supply chain.
00:57 The four year phase out, the $107 million transition package has created many more questions
01:03 than it has answers.
01:04 WA meat processors are looking to solutions.
01:08 It's really delta blow to the industry, it's catastrophic in some instances but we've got
01:14 to find a way, we've got to have some solutions.
01:17 Currently, the Co-op's sheep processing facility in Catanings sends 16% of its chilled meat
01:23 to the Middle East.
01:24 They're hoping to grow this market.
01:27 We thought, well the only way we can do something is try and increase our kill rate that's hopefully
01:32 going to take some pressure off the loss of market from the live sheep export.
01:36 So we've signed off on about a $50 million project that we're going to increase our capacity
01:41 by about half a million head.
01:43 I guess being a farmer you always end up being a bit optimistic because otherwise you wouldn't
01:48 do it.
01:49 But here you hope for the best and plan for the worst in a way.
01:54 I hope it all comes through.
01:56 With just four years to change, producers are facing some hard decisions about the future.
02:01 [END]
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