Australian agribusiness Elders and mining tycoon Andrew Forrest have been working together since last year to open live cattle exports from Australia to China. Forrest has increased his ownership of pastoral land to 720,000 hectares in anticipation of the realization of the deal, and both Forrest and Elders have been in negotiations with Chinese processors including a pork and chicken processor in the Hainan district. Senior Chinese officials have been involved in talks in Western Australia about Beijing relaxing its current strict quarantine regulations and the director general of Western Australia’s Department of Agriculture and Food stated that the department was ‘optimistic’ that an agreement will be reached with the Chinese government. If an agreement is reached, cattle numbers might be an issue as currently Australia is having issues keeping pace with cattle exports to Indonesia and other South-East Asian countries.
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