PROCESSORS involved in last week's live export forum in Fremantle have been urged to proceed with caution when aligning themselves with animal welfare groups, two of which organised the event.
Meat and Livestock Australia livestock exports manager Michael Finucan was one of a handful of representatives from the live export industry that attended last week's forum.
Mr Finucan said overall it was disappointing that the forum only presented one side of the story and people weren't interested in hearing a counter argument or correcting some of the misinformation they were receiving.
But he said he was surprised at the risk the Australian Meat Industry Employees Union (AMIEU) and processors were taking by being involved with the animal welfare groups who wanted to see an end to live exports.
"I am surprised that unions and processors do align themselves with animal activist groups that want to see the end of all livestock farming in some cases," Mr Finucan said.
"Live export may be the pointy end of the wedge at the moment, but they (activists) do want to work their way down and continue to place more restrictions on Australian producers.
"They (processors and the union) need to have a closer look at their partners and consider the longer term effects of what they're talking about."
V&V Walsh export and meat manager Paul Crane sat on the panel at last week's forum, but said his intention was not to get involved in the animal welfare debate, but rather put forward a case on behalf of the processing sector.
Mr Crane admitted being wary of becoming involved in such a heartfelt topic, but wanted to reinforce the message that without a processing industry in WA, the situation for sheep farmers would be far worse.
"Our involvement in the forum was purely just to let people know that the processing industry in WA is an integral part of the whole equation," Mr Crane said.
"V&V Walsh is not against live shipping per se, but we are against not having numbers to keep the processing industry running and at the end of the day, without a processing industry farmers will be in a lot worse condition than what they think they are today.
"Ultimately we are processors, so we would rather see meat in a box and see live exports phased out but we're not getting into the whole debate about live shipping.
"We just want to let people know that the processing industry needs to be considered."
WA Live Exporters Association chair John Edwards also attended the forum, which he described as "just another unfair attempt to discredit the live export industry by a panel of misinformed people".
Mr Edwards said claims by the group that the ACIL Tasman Report commissioned by the RSPCA provided the answers to phasing out live exports was "rubbish".
"I suggest the panel of experts, including a representative from WA meat processor V & V Walsh, get in their cars, leave the comfort of their offices and head beyond the Darling Scarp to fully comprehend the state of our sheep industry rather than saddle live exports as being the root of the problem," Mr Edwards said.
"It's ludicrous to suggest phasing out live exports will maintain sheep producers revenues, as suggested by activists and some politicians.
"The fact is that removing the live export trade as a buyer of nearly 50 per cent of the State's sheep turn-off every year, will decimate the worth of sheep and send producers broke just as quick.
"These groups continue to use smoke and mirrors to distort the truth and provide a very unbalanced picture on the live trade blaming it for the demise of the processing industry."
Mr Edwards said AMIEU president Grant Courtney's comments that 400,000 sheep left Tasmania last year and that 90 meat processing jobs were lost to live exports was absolutely untrue, as records showed that the last vessel to load in Devenport was in early 2006, with only 71,000 head for the year.
"Don't believe for a moment the processing in Australia and export of sheep meat to the Middle East can or will ever replace the live trade," he said. "It just wont happen.
"To use the analogy as voiced by a supporter in opposition to the trade, that we don't hunt and kill whales anymore so live exports can as easily be stopped, is a poor portrayal of comparisons when people overseas depend on supplies of Australian live sheep and Middle East governments support imports of live sheep as a measure of food security and national well being."
National processor Roger Fletcher joined the debate, arguing that the live export trade was in part to blame for the suffering of rural communities as a result of closures in the processing sector.
Mr Fletcher said he believed it was in everybody's best interests to re-build rural meat processing infrastructure to the point where it can make a sustainable and bigger long-term contribution to a healthy rural economy.
