THE PUSH to ramp up beef and sheep semen and embryo exports is gaining momentum with northern industry players looking to set up a ruminant genetics secretariat to co-ordinate marketing and access efforts.
Australia’s abysmal record of participation in the world trade means seedstock producers are foregoing their slice of a very lucrative pie, veterinarians and artificial breeding business owners said.
Speakers at an innovative cattle industry seminar presented by the Australian Registered Cattle Breeders Association at this year’s Royal Queensland Show said bovine semen exports were currently worth a whopping $90m to Canada - which has a much smaller cattle herd than Australia.
On the sheep front, the story is even more dismal.
Greg McCann, Macquarie Artificial Breeders at Dubbo, reported Canada exports more sheep semen and embryos than Australia - ‘and they killed half their flock to give me a lamb chop for brekky.’
Leading geneticists have put the potential value of the market to Australia at over $300m a year.
Veterinarian Ced Wise “Glenisa” at Glen Alpin has been at the forefront of efforts to turn the situation around.
He said a Federal Government grant of $250,000 had just been awarded to the National Herd Improvement Association for the advancement of the ruminant genetics industry.
Some of that grant money needed to go towards commissioning an independent study into the best structure to promote the industry, he said.
“We have in mind a structure that would be underpinned by ongoing industry funding along with government grants and require only office space for one person integrated in an organisation such as Meat and Livestock Australia,” he said.
“Simply having one person to provide a single desk point of contact for the Australian industry, government departments, foreign governments and industry would be an enormous first step.”
Dr Wise described the Australian ruminant seedstock industry as hide bound.
“We have been very good hunter gatherers - we have travelled the world to source the best genetics, bought them home and molded them to suit our environment, measured them, multiplied them and then promptly sat on our laurels only to repeat the whole exercise in a decade or so,” he said.
“Compared to countries like the UK and Canada, and even very small countries like New Zealand, Australia’s involvement in the trade, particularly in the north, barely registers.”
The ruminant genetics export industry is broadly inhibited by two factors - protocol issues and marketing, according to Dr Wise.
A good deal of country-specific protocols were not based on sound scientific biosecurity, he said.
There was also a lack of consistent interpretation of the same protocol by different officials.
Add to that the fact compliance costs are extremely restrictive.
There was recognition at the seminar, however, that protocols are written by importing countries and, while we can try to negotiate with them, ultimately we must comply with their requirements.
“On the marketing side, well it simply doesn’t happen,” Dr Wise said.
“We sit here and hope someone overseas will knock our our door and ask for our genetics.”
A ‘genetics hub’ based in Melbourne was set up to address those issues but producers believe it has had little success.
A lot of work - to no avail - had also be put into trying to find an existing body within the industry that could be tasked with marketing the product, Mr Wise said.
“My persuasive powers as a self-appointed industry advocate may be poor but my ability to whinge is unsurpassed and I have badgered all and sundry for money to form an independent, stand-alone representative group to lift the profile of the industry,” he said.
The NHIA money was finally a bright spot on the horizon.
A secretariat would provide a permanent conduit between industry and the government on protocol issues, Dr Wise said.
The role would look to develop an Australian Standard Protocol that would include assured product quality and scientifically-sound disease testing to minimise biosecurity risk but maximise market access.
It would also organise things like industry groups visiting potential foreign markets, the hosting of foreign producer group visits to Australia and campaigns to increase the profile of the products to Australian agencies.
Dr McCann said there was no doubt these export markets were worth targeting.
“We have arguably the world’s best genetics, particularly in sheep, and zip ability to market it,” he said.
“Seedstock producers are very interested but finding it impossible to get traction.
“One of the reasons is there are no big players but rather a lot of little ones who don’t talk to each other often.
“As a result, the artificial breeding industry here has tended to sit back and let seedstock industry promote the genetics.”