March 9, 2005

New regulations face by Australian cattle exporters in China

Australia's exports of live dairy cows to China could be forced out of the market if they don't meet new regulations in Australia.

With more than 100,000 cows shipped to China last year alone, the trade has boomed over the past three years.

But now the Chinese want more comprehensive breeding information about export heifers, and are threatening export tariffs of up to $800 an animal.

Allan Burgess from Australian Dairy Farmers, says the industry's working hard to meet the new requirements.

"We've had to look at some extra data programming: how we could provide the data to the Chinese; they want a certificate for every animal which last year would have been 100,000 animals, they're wanting a direct IT link to China in Chinese; there's been an enormous work done here, so we can protect this market for farmers in the future."