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Stranded Australian Sheep Begin Unloading in Eritrea
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By Jonah Fisher
MASSAWA, Eritrea (Reuters) - The first of 52,000 Australian sheep who spent months at sea after being rejected by dozens of countries were herded ashore in Eritrea Friday, after the African nation agreed to take them free of charge.
Reuters Photo
Workers at the Red Sea port of Massawa covered their noses with handkerchiefs against the pungent odor wafting from the ship, where more than 5,000 sheep had died during the voyage.
Australia said that Eritrea, a tiny state in northeast Africa, had agreed Friday to take the giant flock as a gift, ending a voyage that began on Aug. 6 and has been a huge embarrassment for the Australian government.
"It's all signed, sealed and delivered," a spokesman for Australian Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said Friday. "It's a huge relief."
Eritrea, stricken by a drought that has rendered much of its four million people dependent on food aid, issued an import permit for the sheep Friday after the two countries signed a memorandum of agreement on October 16, Truss told reporters.
Under the deal, Australia would donate A$1 million ($700,086) to Eritrea for unloading, transport, holding and slaughter costs and would provide 3,000 tons of free feed.
Saudi Arabia rejected the sheep in late August on the disputed grounds that six percent had scabby mouth disease. More than 30 countries eventually refused the shipment, which Australia had to buy back from the Saudi purchaser for A$4.5 million ($3,150,035).
"It is very satisfying we were able to find a destination for the sheep within a few days sailing of where the ship was recently re-provisioned," Truss said Friday.
Eritrea's agriculture minister, Arefayne Berhe, welcomed the shipment to his country, one of the world's poorest.
Australia and Eritrea said inspections showed the sheep were healthy and safe for human consumption.
Australian farm groups had warned that after being crammed onto the ship's 11 decks for two and a half months, the sheep would be unable to leave on all fours and would likely be covered in excrement.
The incident touched off an international furor over Australia's A$1 billion ($700 million) a year livestock trade, with activists calling for humanitarian slaughter of the sheep at sea.
Australia ships six million sheep and one million live cattle a year to markets across the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
The final cost of keeping the sheep at sea, to be borne by the Australian livestock trade through a levy on future exports, was estimated at around A$10 million ($7 million), Truss said.
(Additional reporting by Michael Byrnes, Belinda Goldsmith and Michelle Nichols) (US$1 = A$1.43)
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