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S Arabia receieves first Australian sheep shipment

RIYADH: A shipment of live Australian sheep has arrived in Saudi Arabia, the first since the kingdom imposed a ban on Australian livestock in 1990, the importer said on Sunday.

"The shipment of 60,000 sheep arrived on Saturday afternoon and it has passed tests by authorities," Abdullah al-Shurbi, general manager of Al-Mawashi al-Mukairish United Company, said.

He told Reuters his company would start releasing the sheep to the domestic market from Sunday.

Saudi Arabia imposes strict specifications on all imported food shipments. Foodstuffs imported to the kingdom are not released to the market until after they are tested and certified as fit for human consumption.

Australian sheep exports to Saudi Arabia were halted in 1990, despite tighter guidelines introduced at the time by Australia, after the Saudis turned away several shipments claiming the sheep were old and were infected with scabby mouth, a minor cold sore.

Australia earlier said it would send six trial shipments to Saudi Arabia and would closely monitor them to determine whether live shipments to the kingdom could be resumed.

Shurbi said another shipment of 64,000 Australian sheep was due to arrive in Saudi Arabia in about 20 days.

Saudi Arabia was formerly Australia's largest market for live sheep. Figures carried by the Jeddah-based Arab News showed Australia sold some 3.5 million sheep to Saudi Arabia worth $130 million in 1989.

The trial shipments are arriving in the kingdom in a season of high demand ahead of the annual Haj when some two million Muslims perform pilgrimage in the kingdom in March. Haj pilgrims slaughtered nearly half a million sheep, cattle and camels during last year's ritual.-Reuters