China lifts suspensions on beef plants

The move comes six months after three processors had their COVID-19 suspensions lifted.

The Australian Meat Industry Council's chief executive officer Patrick Hutchinson described the overnight news as a fantastic result.

Export approvals to start supplying China again were received by Queensland's Kilcoy Global Foods and the Meramist abattoir, two Queensland JBS plants - Dinmore and Beef City - and The Casino Food Co-operative in northern NSW.

The plants were suspended for a range of technical issues including alleged labelling inconsistencies and alleged residue detections. Some have been locked out of the China market since 2020.

It has long been considered the plants were collateral damage, along with other agriculture industries like wine, barley and rock lobsters, in geopolitical issues emerging from Australia's criticism of China's policies and questioning of COVID-19 strategies.

Other commodities have seen some relief over the past 12 months but these beef operations have remained firmly sidelined.

As recently as Beef Australia in Rockhampton this month, processing industry leaders were describing the suspensions as one of the biggest challenges the industry faces.

Analysts say that even though demand for red meat from China is depressed at the moment courtesy of tough economic conditions, the reopening of the access will provide additional competition for Australian beef exports likely to put upward pressure on prices.

"After four years of advocacy and hard work on the behalf of red meat exporters we have finally achieved a fantastic result," Mr Hutchinson said.

"The AMIC team has worked closely with Agricultural Minister Murray Watt and Trade Minister Don Farrell, The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as well as our industry partners in China, to have these suspensions lifted. This is a great outcome not only for these companies but the clients some of them process for, and the thousands of farmers and feedlots they support through cattle purchase.

"As a matter of priority, we will continue working with the Federal Government and China on not only having the remaining two exporters' suspensions lifted, but also restarting the new opportunities for other Australian red meat businesses who have been waiting for access to the Chinese market.

"We are thankful to the Australian Government, Prime Minister Albanese, Minister Watt and Minister Farrell their work in assisting these businesses to regain their access to this incredibly important market."