A shipment of live cattle which will leave Darwin for Vietnam tomorrow has been welcomed as an important step towards further market diversification for Australia’s live export industry.

The shipment, the largest consignment of live export cattle to the market for several years, will set sail for the market tomorrow.

South East Asian Livestock Services (SEALS) has secured an order for 1000 cattle to supply a feedlot customer in Haiphong.

A consignment of NT sourced cattle will be loaded on to the Molunat in Darwin tomorrow before leaving for Port of Hanoi tomorrow afternoon.

Australian Live Exporters Council executive director Lach McKinnon said the NT Government had been working for several years to open the live cattle trade to Vietnam.

Diversification into new markets was good news for the northern industry, Mr McKinnon said.

Canada has also recently announced that Vietnam has become the first Asian market since 2003 to accept live imports of Canadian breeding cattle, sheep and goats. 

Vietnam has never been a major market for Australian live cattle exports, but in the early 2000s there was some interest when several shipments of breeder cattle were sent to the market. 

Vietnam relies largely on imports of live cattle from Thailand and boxed beef from a range of suppliers including Australia.

MLA live export manager Michael Finucan said it was hoped this shipment would encourage more imports from Vietnam.

"It is a market with strong potential, there is a strong demand for beef protein there, so hopefully this shipment goes well and they see the benefits of importing our cattle."