Australian live cattle shipments in October were 12pc higher than the same month last year, according to Meat and Livestock Australia, as robust demand from Indonesia continues to attract record volumes of Australian cattle.
MLA reports that according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, exports for the month totalled 74,451 head, taking shipments to all destinations for the first 10 months of 2008 to 699,000 head – up 12pc year-on-year.
During October, just over 71pc of Australian live cattle exports were destined for Indonesia with 53,297 head shipped, up 23pc year-on-year.
Exports to Indonesia for the first 10 months of 2008 (534,409 head) surpassed the calendar year volume for 2007 (516,992 head) and were valued at just below $333 million.
In October Israel received its first shipment of Australian cattle since May, with 9608 head for the month, seeing it surpass Libya as Australia's second largest market so far in 2008 at 35,122 head.
MLA reports that Libya received no cattle for the second consecutive month, leaving Australian shipments so far in 2008 at 28,385 head.
The only other regular markets to record substantial shipments during October were Russia (3469 head), Japan (1500 head) and China (1988 head), while Pakistan received its second shipment of Australian cattle for 2008, with 2499 head.
Smaller shipments for the month were sent to Kuwait (800 head), Malaysia (780 head), Bahrain (400 head) and Qatar (200 head).
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