They are particularly unhappy over the failure of Malaysian importers to meet animal welfare, control and traceability standards during the recent Hari Raya Haji celebrations.
According to a report in Maritime-Executive, Australian livestock exporters have endorsed the market suspensions on Malaysian importers and facilities.
The report, however, did not say how many Malaysian importers had been affected.
It quoted Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council CEO Simon Westaway as commending Australian exporters with Malaysian supply chains for carrying out the suspensions in support of the Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System (ESCAS).
The report said: “A number of facilities have already been suspended, and further sanctions are likely and could include industry action in accordance with the Malaysia ESCAS Control and Traceability Agreement, which came into effect in June 2016.
“In Malaysia, blatant breaches relating to Australian sheep and goats were widespread with Australian animals even being advertised for sale and sacrifice on Facebook. Australian cattle were also being offered for sacrificial slaughter.”
The breaches in the rules were reported to the Australian Department of Agriculture by Australia’s leading animal protection organisation called Animals Australia.
A report in SheepCentral quoted Animals Australia as saying sheep were openly sold from importers feedlots and crudely slaughtered at private premises.
“The handling and slaughter of Australian sheep and goats in Malaysia at numerous non-approved sites was some of the most distressing I have witnessed. It was nothing short of a bloodbath,” it quoted Animals Australia chief investigator Lyn White as saying.
The Maritime-Executive report quoted Westaway as saying: “Our message to the Malaysian supply chain is very simple. Just as Australian exporters must treat their ESCAS compliance obligations as absolute non-negotiables, our Malaysian partners and customers must do the same.”
But Malaysia was not the only nation identified as not following the ESCAS rules. The report said that in the UAE, Animals Australia found that Australian sheep had been sold for home slaughter, too.
In Lebanon, Animals Australia found that Australian sheep had been sold for sacrifice to individual buyers and that these had been slaughtered on concreted slabs at feedlots. In Kuwait, too, it found transgressions.
Under Australia’s ESCAS protocols, Australian livestock cannot be purchased for home slaughter or for slaughter at facilities that have not been approved as meeting international animal welfare standards.
According to the Maritime-Executive report, Australian regulations require animal handling and slaughter in the importing country to conform to World Organisation for Animal Health standards.
The standards call for sharp knives (sharpening between each animal), single cuts of the throat (not repetitive blunt hacking) and effective restraint to minimise animal stress and make the cut more efficient as well as low stress animal handling.
Australia is the only livestock exporting nation which regulates animal welfare standards throughout the entire supply chain, right through to the point of slaughter in overseas markets, says the report.