Rabobank’s recently-released paper, Australian Red Meat Exports to China, also found there were opportunities for Australia’s beef and sheepmeat exports to China to come from extracting value, rather than volume growth in an increasingly competitive market.

Rabobank forecast that while China is expected to import in total an additional 800,000 tonnes of beef and 50,000 tonnes of sheepmeat by 2020, this would only lead to a moderate increase in Australia’s red meat exports to China.

Rabobank senior animal protein analyst Angus Gidley-Baird said Australian beef and sheepmeat exports to China exploded in 2012 and 2013, but since then Australia’s market share had been eroded by increasing competition.

With Australia “no longer the only player in the Chinese market”, Mr Gidley-Baird said the Australian red meat industry needed to “temper its expectations” because it could not directly compete with others in the mass market.

“With China exploring other markets and alternative supply sources, Australia needs to create a strong value proposition – rather than focus on chasing volumes – to differentiate the quality of its product and command a slightly higher price.

“To give the Chinese consumer a reason to purchase Australian product at a slightly higher price than our competitors, we need to tangibly demonstrate food safety, quality, traceability, reliability and freshness,” Mr Gidley-Baird said.

He said Australia’s ability to supply chilled product, something no other country was able to do, also created a higher-value prospect for Chinese consumers.