NZ will resume live animal exports – to low demand

Analysis: It’s apparent the previous government never really had buy-in from its own agriculture officials when it imposed a total ban on live animal exports. And like Sir Humphrey Appleby in Yes Minister, the bureaucrats have prevailed.
Back in 2019, the Ministry for Primary Industries had begrudgingly backed restrictions that would have required any shipment to be approved by the ministry’s boss, the Director-General of Agriculture.
But the following year, it was overtaken by history. En route from New Zealand to China, the Panamanian-registered Gulf Livestock 1 sank in the East China Sea. Forty-one crew members, including Kiwi stock handlers Scott Harris and Lochie Bellerby, died in the tragedy – and so too did 6000 cattle.
Live exports were temporarily suspended and in 2022 the NZ Parliament made that ban permanent. The UK, Australia and Brazil have followed that lead for most livestock, while the EU has tightened controls on animal shipments.
Permanent? As it turns out, no. Last night, Associate Agriculture Minister Andrew Hoggard announced he was reinstating the trade of livestock exports by sea, while ensuring the highest standards of animal welfare.
Newsroom had revealed that continued exports under more stringent welfare controls had been something officials continued to pursue behind minister Damien O’Connor’s back, ahead of last year’s ban.
Last year, hours were spent workshopping and piloting a ‘gold standard’ for live exports despite the ban. Those ‘gold standards’ were piloted on the 10,400-tonne Gelbray Express which left Napier for China in April last year, just two weeks before the ban came into effect.
At the same time, China was pushing for NZ to reverse the live export ban. A Chinese state-owned enterprise warned the bilateral relationship could be hurt if there wasn’t a u-turn.
Farmers, exporters and agriculture officials were given new momentum by the election of the coalition Government. In a briefing to incoming ministers, the ministry officials warned that live animal export revenues were forecast to reduce from $470m to $160m this year, due to the ban. (The export of live animals by air continues).
Hoggard, the former president of Federated Farmers, is an Act MP who had won agreement in the party’s coalition deal for the resumption of live exports.
Now, the Cabinet has decided to draft and introduce an Animal Welfare Amendment Bill next year, that will reinstate the ability to be granted approval to export livestock by sea; place a duty on exporters to manage animal welfare; and provide for animal welfare requirements to be set in regulations.
To be clear, this will not be a resumption of export for halal slaughter in the Middle East. Hoggard says NZ stopped exporting livestock for slaughter in 2007, and this won’t change.
Instead, most of the exports will be dairy cattle to China, to stock their ever-expanding farms. “Reinstating livestock exports by sea will provide additional export and income opportunities for farmers, benefiting NZ’s economy and rural communities,” Hoggard says.
He told Newsroom on Thursday he doesn’t believe there’s any risk to NZ’s global reputation. We could, in fact, “enhance it by showing others a way to do the trade in a much better way”. 
“As for it being a small part of our primary trade, we need to as a country focus on every opportunity we have to build trade, small or big, it all adds up.” 
O’Connor disagrees: “This undermines NZ’s international reputation, for a relatively small amount of export revenues.”
Because here’s the thing. NZ and its agriculture officials may again have been overtaken by history. A Rabobank report shows demand for dairy in China is down and the country has grown its own dairy herd – so its need to import live dairy cattle has dropped significantly.
Senior analyst Michael Harvey says live exports used to be lucrative for NZ and Australian exporters but the drop in demand has impacted prices. Australian farmers were getting US$3,000 per dairy cow in 2022 but that halved last year.
So when the ministry warned the incoming Government ministers of a big decline in revenues, it wasn’t right to put all the blame on the live export ban. Much of this would have happened regardless.
According to Rabobank’s report, everything points to slower live export trade for the foreseeable future.