Listen: Live exports valuable to New Zealand's economy

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Live cattle exports are a valuable part of New Zealand's economy, bringing in an average of $200 million to $300 million a year, says Greg Collins.

This year's total would have been even larger, the Export Manager and Director of Progressive Livestock told The Country's Jamie Mackay.

"This calendar year we're in now, with some big export orders that were due in for later in this year, before the tragic accident, would've been close to $500 million worth of cattle."

The tragic accident Collins referred to was the Gulf Livestock 1, a ship carrying 43 crew and nearly 6000 New Zealand dairy cows, which sank off the Japanese coast on Wednesday last week.

The export orders would be made up of 10,000 dairy heifers and around 50,000 beef heifers, destined for China, Collins said.

The animals were being exported for breeding purposes, not slaughter, since African swine fever has decimated China's pork supplies, and Collins stressed that conditions on board the ships were optimal.

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"They get fed and watered on a daily basis and are very closely monitored. In fact, live weights per ship is greater at the other end of the voyage than it is at this end - they put on weight."

Collins said he'd had "a number of guys" examine where the cattle were housed in China as well and they had reported that these farms were "very, very well run."

New Zealand farmers were also getting twice as much money for overseas exports than if they were being sold on the domestic market, according to Collins.

"I would suggest it's probably two-thirds stronger than if those animals had to go to slaughter."

The average mortality rate for live exports was 0.09 per cent since 2015 shipping, which Collins said was "way less than what a farmer would be able to achieve in a normal farming situation".

The role of live export trade has been under intense scrutiny since the accident.

Today, the Ministry for Primary Industries launched an independent review into the assurances for safe transport of livestock by sea. Mike Heron QC has been appointed to lead the review, which was expected to take about a month.

As a result, there were now boatloads of animals held up in quarantine, or stuck on-farm, while the Government made a decision on live exports. This was proving costly for farmers, Collins said.

"So the ones that are still on-farm - the farmer's got to feed those cattle that they weren't intending to - plus the other ones that in quarantine need to be feed."

Collins also predicted a grim future for the animals left in limbo.

"I suggest those ones in quarantine - if they don't get on the ship - there's probably only one place they're going to end up - probably slaughter."