She said rebuilding that confidence means dealing with concerns around scabby mouth disease.

Scabby mouth isn’t a notifiable disease under OIE guidelines or an endemic disease around the world, she said, but still requires new measures to address market concerns.

Ms Penfold said a government trade delegation visited Bahrain recently to start those discussions.

“The hiatus on the Bahrain market will last as long as it needs to last,” she said to Fairfax Agricultural Media.

“Bahrain has already imported 20,000 head of sheep from Somalia – we need to address market access soon, so we don’t give our competitors any further opportunities.

“But we must sort through their concerns properly and thoroughly and put in place the necessary arrangements that will give the market certainty.”

Ms Penfold said sheep prices in WA had dropped 40 per cent due to the lack of buying activity, which meant the value of mutton was now the effective value for sheep.

“They are the forces that come into play when you don’t have live exports in the market,” she said.

WA Liberal Senator Chris Back also attended the meeting and said he was pleased the event was also broadcast over the internet, with direct links to agriculture department offices, which added another 80 viewers to the 120 people who attended in person.

Senator Back said there were “deep concerns” about the sudden drop in sheep prices, but fears were also held for a shortage in feed supplies if stock remains stranded.

“We didn’t have much of a winter or spring, so there are feed shortages on paddocks and some tough decisions ahead for producers about what to do with their sheep if ships don’t go,” he said.

Senator Back said there was also a bottleneck developing, with a wait until well into January for access to local slaughter facilities.

In an opinion article published this week, Senator Back questioned the “wanton, witless and wasteful” cull and strength of the nation’s relationship with Pakistan.