The prospect of Australia exporting live sheep to Iran finally getting off the ground was given a boost last week with Aussie Agriculture and Food Minister Ken Baston meeting with Iran’s Ambassador to Australia Abdolhossein Vahaji on Tuesday.
Getting the trade moving was a key discussion point in the meeting, with Baston saying the ambassador gave positive signals that Iran was keen to get trade going “as quickly as possible,” Western Australia’s newspaper Farm Weekly reported.
Iran was once one of Australia’s largest sheep markets, but the market was closed nearly 40 years ago.
At the time Iran had a population of 50 million, but that has since grown to somewhere near 80 million and industry sources believe the country has the potential to import one million head of live sheep annually.
“If we can get it going again, it would be a very important market for us,” he said.
“The ambassador invited me to visit and I am looking at travelling to the Middle East in November, so if that trip takes place, I will try and facilitate going to Iran then.”
Baston said with Western Australia’s sheep flock sitting at about 14.2 million head, there was going to be a need to increase production to meet new markets.
