Australia will not export live sheep to the Middle East during the northern summer next year.

Key points: Farmers have been told there will be no trade of live sheep to the Middle East for three months from June 1, 2019

Farmers have been told there will be no trade of live sheep to the Middle East for three months from June 1, 2019 ALEC chair Simon Crean said the industry-imposed moratorium would provide certainty for farmers

ALEC chair Simon Crean said the industry-imposed moratorium would provide certainty for farmers Labor has promised to immediately ban live sheep exports to the Middle East during summer if elected

Livestock exporters have today told farmers they will stop the trade of live sheep for three months from June 1, 2019.

Amid growing calls to impose a ban, the Australian Livestock Exporters Council (ALEC) chairman Simon Crean said the industry-imposed moratorium would provide certainty for farmers.

"This is about maintaining and growing a strong, viable, nine-month-a-year live sheep trade, and more broadly securing the future of Australia's livestock export industry," Mr Crean said.

"The live sheep trade to the Middle East needs to be reset," he said.

The northern summer trade of live sheep is estimated to be worth $55 million per year.

A third of sheep produced in Western Australia are sold for live export.

Australian Livestock Exporters Council chair Simon Crean visited Middle East abattoirs in 2016. ( Supplied: ALEC )

Key crossbenchers Rebekha Sharkie, Kerryn Phelps and Andrew Wilkie this week renewed calls to ban the trade.

The Labor Opposition has committed to phase out the live export of sheep over five years if elected next year.

Pressure to end live sheep exports was ignited when damning footage emerged in April revealing more than two thousand sheep died onboard the Awassi Express in transit from Australia to the Middle East in August 2017.

When footage of that incident was made public, the Federal Agriculture Minister Mr Littleproud launched a range of reviews into live exports.

Farmers welcome decision

Kojonup farmer Steve McGuire has welcomed the decision by ALEC to impose a moratorium to safeguard the trade. ( ABC Rural: Kit Mochan )

In Western Australia, where the live sheep export trade represents a third of the sheep and lamb offtake each year, farmers have been hit hard by trading halts and market insecurity since the scandal broke.

Vice president of the WAFarmers livestock council Steve McGuire praised the decision by ALEC to voluntarily introduce a moratorium.

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"We need to be able to guarantee the welfare of the sheep on those boats. We have to work together to make the industry work...a divided industry won't survive me must work together," he said.

"It's good that the decision has been made now, we asked for that decision to be made as soon as possible so we can plan our businesses around it."

"[Farmers are] business managers and we're risk managers."

The Kojonup sheep farmer said at a value of around $200,000, he sells around 2,500 of his flock for live export each year, although it was dependent on the season.

"We use [live shipping] as a management option in a dry year if it hasn't rained… we like to be able to shift some sheep out of the farm," he said.

Live trade 'not unredeemable'

Although losing the option to ship animals during the Northern summer months would cost his family business money, Mr McGuire said calls from Labor to ban the trade outright would devastate farmers in southern Western Australia.

"If you could manage to base your decision on logic and facts that would be great, but unfortunately that doesn't seem to be happening … it seems] to be based more on misinformation and emotion," he said.

"They're quite prepared to throw sheep producers in Western Australia under the bus just to win a few votes.

"The live trade is not unredeemable as [Shadow Agricultural Minister] Joel Fitzgibbon says and it's not inherently cruel as [the] RSPCA say.

"The sheep can be exported in a humane manner, it can happen. We've just got to make it happen."