Western Australia's live cattle trade has finally set sail to Indonesia, after long-awaited import permits were issued last Friday.
It comes after a six-week delay due to general elections in that country, which has seen multiple shipments of cattle being held in yards and ships waiting outside of Australian ports.
The first shipment from WA left port this week, with about 3800-head onboard.
Indonesia is the biggest buyer of live cattle from Australia, with Meat & Livestock Australia reports showing that 54 per cent (359,305-head) of last year's trade went predominantly into their feeder market.
Indonesian export numbers rebounded by 144pc month-to-month in December, after the trade was temporarily suspended in October to November.
WA Livestock Exporters' Association chairman John Cunnington said in recent years, cattle import permits would normally be issued in the first two weeks of January.
"All permits expire at the end of December, so essentially since January 1 there have been no cattle shipped to Indonesia," Mr Cunnington said.
"There has been no stated reason as to what caused the delay.
"I think the most difficult part was not knowing when the permits would be released, with uncertainty creating a logistical nightmare and issues in planning.
"We couldn't move cattle from the yards into a paddock because we didn't know whether the permits would be received later in the month or the next day.
"Then ships, which had been chartered, were anchored at Fremantle and Darwin ports, and other vessels were waiting around Singapore because exporters weren't willing to sign up for them until they had certainty of import permits being released."
Mr Cunnington said the delays hit exporters hard with full and multiple shipments of cattle being held in yards and ships waiting outside of port, however there was also a knock-on effect to industry providers, who were out of usual live export related work, including veterinarians, fodder suppliers and transporters.
He said while the northern wet season meant January was a difficult month for supply reasons, this year was important in the lead-up to Ramadan and Eid Al Fitr, which commemorates the end of holy month Ramadan and is one of the two major holidays for Muslims.
"Eid Al Fitr is the busiest and highest selling period for Indonesia's live cattle trade and feedlotters respectively," Mr Cunnington said.
"Cattle normally need to be held in the feedlot for three months after arrival into Indonesia, so anything shipped in the next month would be cattle for after Ramadan."
Mr Cunnington said it was good that permits had been issued and business in moving cattle could return.
He anticipated the next 12 months to be more smooth sailing than the last.
"In the past couple of years there have been quite a few dips and radical movements in both price and supply," Mr Cunnington said.
"Being able to get back to a more steady, predictable and stable trade is what everyone is looking forward to."
