December 03, 2003
Australia Confident of Getting Sheep Export Permit to Supply Kuwait
The Australia's Agriculture Department is confident an export permit for 70-thousand sheep waiting to be loaded in Victoria will be granted in the next two days.
The sheep were destined for Kuwait, but have been stranded in two Portland feedlots for the past fortnight, since animal activists allegedly contaminated their feed with ham.
The Agriculture Department has refused to issue the sheep with an export permit until the Kuwaiti Government gives a formal guarantee that they'll be accepted.
Federal Agriculture Department spokesman Carson Creagh says positive discussions between department secretary Michael Taylor and Kuwaiti Government officials took place in Rome at the weekend, but he says there's still no formal written guarantee from Kuwait that the sheep will be accepted. He says it's premature to suggest an export permit will be granted today, but he's hopeful it will happen within the next 48 hours.
Meanwhile the Australian Democrats will present a 65-thousand signature petition to Federal Parliament today calling for an end to the live export trade. Democrats leader Senator Andrew Bartlett says the petition is the biggest tabled in the Senate in the past three years.
Meanwhile the South Australian Farmers Federation (SAFF) wants written guarantees for other live export shipments currently at sea.
Julie Lloyd from SAFF's Livestock Executive Committee says 290-thousand sheep in five consignments are already en route.
She says written assurances should be given that those animals will be accepted at their destinations, before any more export deals are entered into.
"We need to know that the sheep are going to be offloaded in their port of destination. Australia has a wonderful quarantine, and a clean green image reputation, words I hate but they are a fact, and we don't want to see those compromised, we don't want to see shipments returned to Australia."
50-thousand sheep are due to be loaded at Adelaide this week, and livestock agents say arrangements for the delivery of those sheep have been confirmed.
