NTCA and Vietnam sign landmark deal
21-NOV-2008 Intellasia | Farmonline
Nov 21, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
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The signing of the first Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between rural and trading organisations in Vietnam and the Northern Territory was the highlight this month's visit to Asean nations by a trade delegation led by the NT minister for Primary Industry and Tourism, Kon Vatskalis.
The MOU, which paves the way for an initial shipment of 1,500 cattle from Darwin to Vietnam, was signed in Nha Trang City between the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association, the Khanh Hoa Trading and Investment Co and the Mid Vietnam Breeding Cattle Corporation.
Luke Bowen, who signed the MOU as CEO of the NT Cattlemen's Association, said he is confident that the Territory's pastoral industry is capable of supply the additional cattle to Vietnam, despite record shipments out of Darwin this year.
The NT government's Pastoral Market Update records that 310,580 cattle have been exported from Port Darwin so far this year.
That is a whopping 30% increase on the 238,035 head of cattle shipped out of Darwin during the same period last year.
Exporters were helped by increased demand from Indonesia because of a number of Muslim religious festivals which fall in December, and the lower value of the Australian dollar against the US greenback.
The Indonesian market accounted for 296,500 Territory and Queensland cattle shipped from Darwin during the first 10 months of this year.
Last year, cattle importers in the world's biggest Muslim nation purchased 215,500 in the 10 months to the end of October.
Indonesia is by far the biggest market for North Australian cattle, but smaller markets such as Brunei and Sabah held up, while the Philippines market dropped to 6,317 cattle— about half of the total purchase for this time in 2007.
Bowen said the Territory's US$200 million live cattle industry can meet increased demand from new markets such as Vietnam, and maintain its reputation for quality and consistency in the livex product.
"The industry sources its cattle form a 1.9 million-strong herd on 216 properties occupying half the Territory's landmass of 1.4 million square kilometres," Bowen said.
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