Now is one of the busiest times of the year for exporters with the Ramadan and the Hajj festivals, the need for fresh meat in the Middle East was as strong as ever according to livestock manager for Livecorp and Meat and Livestock Australia, Peter Dundon.

“Demand is very good. I have been speaking with three of the exporters today and the financial crisis does not appear to have affected the trade at all.

"With most of the Middle East currencies pegged to the American dollar, a weaker Australian dollar has only boosted trading conditions,” he added.

Mr Dundon, who is based in Bahrain said supply of sheep from Australia from May to August was very low and in a few cases areas of Bahrain literally ran out of fresh meat.

“They rely on Australia for almost all of their fresh meat and when ships were delayed and meat did not arrive earlier this year it made the front page of local newspapers.

"This meat feeds a lot of poor people and without it they would go hungry.

"You don’t see that story in the mainstream Australian media,” he said.

There is a strong push to move the live sheep trade to a chilled and frozen trade given the highly political nature of the industry but Mr Dundon said moving Middle Eastern consumers to frozen and chilled meat would be similar to moving Australians from fresh vegetables to frozen vegetables.

“People just want fresh meat, in some cases such as the festivals coming up it is a religious reason that demands fresh meat but generally people just want fresh meat.

"I just can’t see such a cultural change happening in a hurry and who are we to impose our ivory tower values on these developing countries?” he asked.

Wellards livestock manager Garry Robinson added business was very buoyant and demand meant good wethers would still be fetching $50-$60 for the trade this year.