Mr McKinnon said it could take a long time for Australia to restore its reputation in Indonesia but the absence of foot and mouth disease in its cattle gave it an export advantage.

"Indonesians prefer to buy from New Zealand and Australiabecause we're foot and mouth disease-free," he said.

Mr McKinnon said it was surprising that Indonesia had remained FMD-free considering its proximity to other Asian countries with the disease, and the country was determined to retain this status.

He said some markets required a live animal due to religious requirements such as Halal slaughter or lack of refrigeration facilities.

Mr McKinnon said one of the repercussions of the 4 Corners report which showed cruelty to Australian cattle exported to Indonesia was that while live exports to Indonesia were suspended for only a month, it took a lot longer to get cattle into the market.

"On June 7, the government closed the live cattle trade and on July 6, the trade reopened but it took another five weeks for thefirst ship to get there," he said.

He said the live export trade was worth more than $1 billion in revenue to Australia.

In 2010, the cattle trade was worth $679 million, goats $10m and sheep $323m, including 873,573 head of cattle, 81,014 goats and 2,978,154 sheep.

Mr McKinnon said Indonesia was the biggest market for cattle "by a country mile".

It represented 81 per cent of the trade in 2009.