October 29, 2013

Australia to expand live cattle trade with Vietnam

Adam Giles, Australia's Northern Territory chief minister, met with Vietnamese Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, to expand live cattle trade in Vietnam, after Vietnam imported about 40,000 cattle from northern Australia in the last 18 months.

The mission trip comes on the back of a resurgent market in Indonesia, which is helping the Northern Territory's cattle industry to recover after live export bans in 2010. The chief minister hopes to expand with the export of Australian buffalo.

The possibility of increasing participation of the Australian live cattle trade in Vietnam comes as Indonesia moves to resolve issues with beef supply, after a policy of self-sufficiency caused beef to hit record prices.

The Indonesian government recently approved a plan to acquire a million hectares of Australian farmland in the country's north for breeding cattle before shipping them back to Indonesian feedlots.