Shares in livestock exporter Wellard Limited fell by 25 per cent on Tuesday after the company announced an expected loss of up to $65 million for the financial year.
The company made an initial announcement to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), which forecast an end of financial year loss "significantly higher" than the $16 million reported in the company's first half report.
A clarification was made to the market update later on Tuesday afternoon that potential losses for the full year before tax were expected to be between $55 million and $65 million.
In response to the news, Wellard shares fell by 25.6 per cent to $0.145.
The forecast losses have been blamed on a reduction in demand from South-East Asian markets, high cattle prices, and "an extraordinary loss" on one voyage in South America.
The announcement stated that the price of cattle in Australia had "remained uneconomically high", which meant that exporters and processors were forced to compete for stock.
In a statement, Wellard managing director Mauro Balzarini cited a 60 per cent drop in cattle exports to Indonesia in June, compared to the same period last year.
He said Wellard was disappointed to be in this position and that the company's previous expectations of market improvement had not materialised at this point in the season.
Mr Balzarini was unavailable for further comment.
Wellard is due to release its final end of 2017/16 financial year results at the end of August.
