20 July 2015
Eliza Borrello
ABC News
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce has signed a deal which will see Australia export live cattle to Beijing.
It comes after Indonesia recently slashed live cattle imports from Australia.
“It’s the result of hard work over a long period of time,” Mr Joyce said.
“It gives people a real sense … that we have a strong future in the protein market, for which live cattle are a vital part.”
Mr Joyce says he hopes the deal will soon see Australia earning up to $2 billion a year from both breeder and live cattle exports to China.
“The 117,000 breeder cattle we sold last year was worth about a quarter of a billion dollars to us,” he said.
“Now we’re hoping that over about a decade we can take these numbers up … we’re the first nation to crack this market in slaughter cattle.
“If we can take that to about a million head, that’s in rough terms between $1 billion and $2 billion.”
Mr Joyce said he hoped the first head of cattle could be exported within months.
“We can turn this deal around very quickly,” he said.
Courtesy of ABC News
