Australia’s live cattle export quotas to Indonesia in 2013 will be slightly higher than previously expected, but the relief is small for an industry in desperate need of good news.

Representatives from Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade have met with officials from Australia’s Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry in Perth over the past two days to nut-out quota allocations for each of the four quarters next year.

The 2013 quota in import tonnage terms has not changed from the 80,000t initially advised last Friday, with 48,000t still allocated to live cattle imports and 32,000t to boxed beef imports.

However, what has changed is the actual number of cattle the 48,000t allocated to live imports represents.

When agriculture minister Joe Ludwig announced the Indonesian quota allocations last Friday, the 48,000t was said to represent 238,000 head of imported cattle.

However, during this week’s meeting in Perth, exporters were told the the 48,000t of live cattle quota will amount to 267,000 cattle.

A high level source told Beef Central privately on Thursday afternoon that the 267,000 head figure was the “definite number” and that the 238,000 figure was likely to have been the result of a miscalculation, however it was unclear at what level that occurred.

The new figure is 29,000 more cattle for 2013 than previously expected, a small but welcome improvement on the previously announced levels.

The important number for exporters now is how that figure breaks down into quarterly quotas.

Exporters have been told that 56,000 head will be allocated to the first quarter, 120,000 for the second quarter, and 46,000 each for the third and fourth quarters.

The good news about the quotas is that they have been released in time to allow exporters to start planning charters so ships currently on voyages can move straight into Indonesian runs when they return, instead of standing idle.

The bad news is that the numbers for each quarter, with the exception of the second quarter, are so low they will present exporters with a major headache in trying to keep chartered shipping capacity optimally utilised until the next quarter's quota can be accessed.

“The critical period will definitely be that first quarter because there is only 56,000 head,” Northern Territory Livestock Exporters Association chief executive officer Bernie Brosnan said.

“The most difficult thing from an exporters’ point of view is how do you manage that charter, and how do you keep moving it around if your importers don’t have enough head to keep that boat going.”

The 120,000 head in the second quarter will allow exporters to operate with slightly more certainty, but the sudden drop back to 46,000 head for each of the final two quarters will make it difficult to maintain chartered shipping capacity.

“It makes it very hard for those blokes,” Mr Brosnan said.

“They’ve got their obligations, do they walk away from charters, or do they sit there and let them hang on the chain, and cop the demurrage.

“If they walk away from them, the boats end out of Australia and back in European waters doing runs over there, and it is hard to get them back, so that is going to be the real difficulty.”

The newly confirmed quota levels for 2013 are 16,000 head lower than the cattle import quotas for 2012 of 283,000 head.