May 31, 2013

After the import restrictions were lifted two months ago, the first shipment of Western Australia's rapeseed in four years has arrived in China this week.

The oilseeds from the Western Australian port of Esperance were the first cargo to be unloaded in the Asian country.

The market, worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year, to Australian farmers was suspended in 2009 due to the risk of blackleg fungus.

Nick Goddard, from the Australian Oilseeds Federation, says this week's successful shipment is cause for celebration.

"Look, it's been phenomenal. The lifting of the ban came in late March and in the space of really a few days orders were already being written for the rapeseed and I think we got something like 300,000 tonnes that either on the water or soon to be loaded from Australian to China so that's great."