Ewe-turn
On Saturday, the Australian government announced plans to ban its live sheep export trade by 2028, a move praised by animal rights groups but condemned by farmers who were “shocked” at the 4-year timeline, even as the government offered a ~$71M package to help impacted businesses make the transition.
Farmers in neighboring New Zealand, renowned for its shearling natives, will have taken notice.
Indeed, NZ’s own sheep population continues to dwindle, with new data released by Stats NZ in early May revealing that the nation’s total number of sheep fell by 3% to ~24M for the year ended June 2023. That’s roughly half the figure recorded two decades ago, and 65% less than in 1981, when there were ~22 sheep for every resident. And, as the country’s human population boomed to more than 5.2M in 2023, the country’s sheep-to-people ratio has been sheared to just ~4.6.
Bet the farm
The decline of the country’s sheep industry — with exports of lamb, mutton, and wool once the country’s largest source of national revenue — has been relentless for decades. That’s partly due to a deterioration in the economics of sheep farming, as the price of wool has plummeted and farmers look to cut costs anywhere they can, including by taking more risks on their insurance.
Another factor has been the loss of farmland: since 2011, the country has lost more than 940K hectares of grassland. Why? Part of the reason, at least recently, is that in 2019, NZ pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050, leading to the introduction of a trading program that allows companies to offset emissions with carbon credits purchased from forest owners. As the price of these credits soared, the math became clear for farmers: cash-in on the credits by converting their agricultural land to forest.
