Impact of Foot and Mouth disease on grains value chain

⁠⁠⁠Foot and mouth disease (FMD) is a viral disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals (e.g. cattle, sheep, goats, etc.) which can result in the death of young animals and severe production issues. It is currently exotic to Australia but has been recently detected in Indonesia. Due to the high level of trade and tourism-related travel that occurs between Australia and Indonesia, this detection poses a significant biosecurity risk to Australia. Were Australia to lose its current FMD-free status it would severely impact livestock and livestock product international export market access. However, the impact will extend to many other industries that are reliant on, or co-located with, the livestock industry, including the grains industry. The FMD virus is highly transmissible on materials and can spread from one place to another through the movement of vehicles and goods. If FMD is detected in Australia, movement controls may be placed not only on potentially infected animals but also on potentially contaminated things such as vehicles, equipment, people, crops, grains, hay, and mixed feeds. It is these latter movement restrictions that may have significant impacts to grain growers. This investment is for a consultancy to further investigate and advise on the potential impacts that FMD detection in Australia, and the subsequent emergency response, would have on grain growers. It is expected that mitigation strategies to reduce these impacts where possible will be developed following this investment and assist in the industry’s preparedness were an FMD incursion to occur

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