Trade chief Don Farrell meets with exporters as Iran conflict cuts shipping route

Australia’s trade chief is urgently meeting with the country’s 40 peak bodies representing exporters “to work out what we can do to help them” keep selling across the world amid major shipping disruptions sparked by the spiralling Middle East conflict.

With the conflict rapidly expanding from Iran to other Middle Eastern countries, the Strait of Hormuz has been forced shut and freighters and oil tankers sailing to and from many of the Gulf states have grinded to a halt.

Australia’s exports to the region sit at about $15bn, with red meat exporters particularly exposed.

Trade Minister Don Farrell said his meeting with peak bodies was to “make sure that we come out the other end of this in a solid situation”.

“Our trade is in fact increasing in the Middle East,” he told ABC’s News Breakfast.

“We now have a free-trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates – already our beef trade has doubled in the six months that that trade agreement has been in operation.

“But of course, all of that gets affected by this uncertainty in the Middle East.”

A fifth of the world’s oil supply is shipped through the Strait of Hormuz – a 33km-wide water passage separating southern Iran from the northern tip of Oman.

Commercial ships stopped traversing the strait after several oil tankers were targeted by Iran, with at least one crew member on a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker killed in a drone strike.

Finance analytics firm S&P Global has warned that Australia was likely to be more affected by the disruptions than other major beef exporters.

Australia’s exports to the region hit a record high in 2025 at 40,522 tonnes.

It was up 10.6 per cent on the previous year, making it one of the fastest-growing premium destinations for Australian red meat.

But fellow top beef producer Brazil is less vulnerable, with the Middle East accounting for less than 5 per cent of its total exports.

The Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council (ALEC) is one of the 40 organisations Senator Farrell was set to meet on Wednesday.

The ALEC said it understood “there are no consignments on the water en route to the Middle East”.

“Our exporter members are currently monitoring the situation very closely to determine the next steps for planned shipments,” the peak body said.

Asked in his interview if he had spoken with his US counterpart, Senator Farrell said he had before the conflict broke out last week, but the conversation was on US tariffs.

“We’ll have all the appropriate conversations, but my task right at the moment is to be talking with Australian businesses, working out what we can do as a government to ensure that they can continue to get their product out to the world,” he said.

“And that certainly will be my focus today and in the days ahead.”