Aussie exports to RI collapse

Aussie exports to RI collapse

SYDNEY (Reuters): Australian exports to Indonesia were nearly cut in half in the March quarter, with live cattle sales feeling the brunt of the downturn.

Bureau of Statistics data issued this week showed that exports to Indonesia plummeted to A$474 million from A$858 million in the December quarter of 1997.

Indonesia, a buyer of mainly rural items, accounted for 4 percent of total Australian exports before the archipelago was hit with economic and social unrest from the rupiah's collapse as part of the mid-1997 Asian contagion.

The disintegration of Australia's live cattle export trade accounted for the bulk of the decline.

Australia exported A$237.8 million worth of live cattle to Indonesia in the full 1996/97 year.

Figures from the Australian Meat and Livestock Corp. show that the 387,444 head of live cattle exported to Indonesia in 1997 dropped away to virtually nothing in 1998.

Against monthly average imports of 32,000 head in 1997, Indonesia imported a mere 1,100 head in the first three months of 1998.

The Australian Wheat Board has said that Australia's wheat exports to Indonesia in 1996/97 amounted to 2.4 million tons. It has not put a value figure on the trade, but at a price of A$180 a ton the exports would be worth about A$430 million.