The Department of Agriculture and Water Resources is auditing all Australian exporters with supply arrangements for feeder and slaughter cattle into the Vietnamese market.
The department has identified areas for improvement around animal control, traceability and verification processes and the industry is working to resolve these issues as an absolute priority.
As part of this process, the department has directed Ruralco’s live export business, Frontier, to cease further supply of feeder and slaughter cattle into Vietnam.
At this time, only two (2) future shipments to Vietnam were scheduled for completion this financial year, according to chief financial officer Adrian Gratwicke.
“The company continues to work cooperatively with the department in relation to this matter and is well progressed on a review of its processes and reporting protocols, with a number of refinements already having been made,” Mr Gratwicke said.
“Frontier is not aware of any instances of inhumane treatment of cattle in its supply chain and takes animal welfare and its obligations under live export laws extremely seriously.”
-Ruralco