Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) chairman Don Heatley said an important part of the vision was the development of a comprehensive action plan for each key export market.

The first plan is set to be implemented in Australia's largest and most important cattle export market, Indonesia.

"This is an ambitious plan to enable our industry to have tighter management of animal welfare outcomes in our overseas markets," Mr Heatley said.

"It will deliver a system to identify, monitor and address welfare requirements through implementation of endorsed livestock welfare standards."

Mr Heatley said the industry was committed to only supply Australian livestock to facilities where supply chains met or exceeded the relevant sections of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) animal welfare standards.

"Our deadline for meeting this goal is 2015, but we will be working hard to achieve this as early as possible," he said.

"This is an ambitious plan that will enable our industry to have tighter management of animal welfare outcomes in our overseas markets.

"It will deliver a system to identify, monitor and address welfare requirements through the implementation of endorsed livestock welfare standards."

Mr Heatley said the strategy and action plans flow from an independent review of Indonesian facilities held last year.

"Our Indonesian trading partners are committed to the implementation of our action plan," he said.

"This is a big step by a developing country and Indonesia will be at the forefront of developing countries in adopting OIE standards."

WA Live Exporters Association chairman John Edwards said the strategic vision was part of continued improvement of animal welfare for the last 10 to 15 years.

"It is a continued ramp-up of what has been going on for a long time now and this is just another incremental step in that process," he said.