THE Livestock and Rural Transporters Association of WA (LRTAWA) will be stepping up its fight to preserve the live export trade in coming months as its members have been directly impacted by no sheep being live exported since early June.
LRTAWA president Andy Jacob said the biggest challenge the association had “at the moment is live export”.
“We will be lobbying hard over the coming months to maintain this industry as it affects such a large number of our members,” Mr Jacob said.
“Without live export our members will see a decline in livestock, bulk and general movements.
“I see this as a fundamental issue.
“We are also focused on a long-term ‘promote agriculture’ campaign.
“A healthy primary production industry leads to a healthy transport industry.”
Mr Jacob was elected president a few weeks ago at the LRTAWA’s 38th annual conference at Bunbury.
He took over the leadership from outgoing president Stephen Marley, Marley’s Transport, who held the position for six years.
Prior to that Mr Jacob was directly involved in the WAFarmers campaign to educate the community on the importance of the live export trade – participating in a short video on his involvement in the live export industry as a livestock carrier.
Mr Jacob said despite the challenges transporters were facing, he was optimistic about the future and would “continue to steer the LRTAWA in a positive direction”.
“I intend to engage more with our members and listen to their issues and offer support to find solutions to the areas that are affecting them the most,” he said.
“I would like to strengthen and further develop relationships with government and regulators to achieve win-win outcomes for all parties in the belief that we are all after the same outcome, greater productivity and efficiency.”
Mr Jacob said the annual conference and drive day was well supported by members and sponsors, with speakers that “were engaging and extremely informative”.
“One of the most important points highlighted at the conference was the link between transport productivity and lowering growers’ costs of production,” Mr Jacob said.
“The more efficient the transport system through less regulation and greater access for higher productivity vehicles, the better this is for our clients.
“WA as an export-focussed State is competing with countries with a lower cost of production, so we must look for every efficiency possible in the supply chain whilst continuing to do our job safely.”
