East Gippsland Livestock Exchange Commercial Review

Next steps

We thank the agricultural community for taking the time to have a say on the preferred operating model of the saleyards.

Key themes and insights can be found here.

All feedback will be presented to Council for consideration and final decision-making. Further updates will be provided here on Your Say, and via the AgriBusiness newsletter.

Community engagement

Expert consultant AEC Group produced a commercial review report of the saleyards. Read the Executive Summary here. This report was informed by consultations with key stakeholders, including livestock agents and staff. Additionally, community consultations took place from February to March 2025, providing valuable insights.

Objective and scope

The East Gippsland Livestock Exchange Commercial Review emerged as part of our continual improvement process, which delivers a constant evaluation of all services and commercial businesses in East Gippsland to address current and forecasted shifts in industry operations trends.

Recognising the importance of staying current with evolving industry norms and ensuring organisational efficiency, the decision to conduct a commercial review was made to look at the best operating model for our facility, which ensures the facility continues to meet the needs of East Gippsland’s agricultural sector in an effective and cost-efficient manner.

Our purpose is to identify a strategic pathway for Council and determine the optimal business structure for managing the East Gippsland Livestock Exchange.

We are not considering selling the saleyards.

The review will assess saleyard operations at a local, regional, and national level, along with livestock movements, and provide detailed recommendations with all findings to be presented to Council for consideration before action can be taken. This will cover an overview of the current in-house business model, forecast performance of the facility and best practice management options.

Our focus continues to remain on what is best for the livestock industry, local vendors and buyers, and ratepayers.

Funding

Funding for the Commercial Review is provided by East Gippsland Shire Council.

We welcome your continued interest in this review. Updates will be provided below. Please click 'Subscribe' at the top of the page to receive information directly to your inbox. To search for other projects near you, simply type the town name in the search bar.