The Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council (ALEC) has welcomed government reform to streamline export certification processes, but harbours concern.
Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources Barnaby Joyce has confirmed that meat producers are eligible for an Approved Arrangement when preparing to export livestock.
Reform to the export processes for Australian producers has been established to reduce government regulation and minimise costs for compliant meat exports by streamlining the export certification process.
According to ALEC CEO Alison Penfold, there was doubt over the legitimacy of government figures that suggested the reform would lead to a 30 per cent decrease in charges.
“Livestock exporters would hope to enjoy a reduction in government charges on that scale, but the jury is out on whether it will ever materialise across the board,” Penfold said.
“In our view, any figures on reductions in government charges are still only estimates which, as we already know from modelling, are not fairly distributed across all exporters, markets or species. In addition, there are still fundamental problems with the framework, particularly around the contribution to corporate overheads and an absence of departmental productivity improvements.”