Meat industry calls for dialogue with China as trade war continues for second year

The Australian Meat Industry Council says it's time Canberra and Beijing reconciled their differences. (Reuters: Tingshu Wang)

A peak meat industry body is calling on the federal government to repair its relationship with China following another export ban.

Meat processing giant Teys Australia has had its export license revoked for its Naracoorte facility in South Australia's South East.

Australian Meat Industry Council chief executive Patrick Hutchinson said the issue needed to be fixed.

"The time for a better relationship with China is now," he said.

Mr Hutchinson said the breakdown in communication was a detriment to the industry. 

"Because we don't have a dialogue with China at the moment that we had in 2019, when these issues occur we don't know about it until it goes onto their general administrations' customs website," he said.

Teys Australia's Naracoorte plant is the 10th Australian abattoir to be banned from exporting to China. (ABC News)

Empty seats at the table

Federal Trade Minister Dan Tehan said the government was doing everything it could to re-establish markets.

"We've called on the Chinese authorities to follow the proper processes and procedures that most countries follow, especially when it comes to COVID outbreaks in meat establishments," he said.

With the trade war well into its second year, the federal government is in negotiations with other countries to fill the hole left by China.

"That's why the UK Free Trade Agreement was so important and the increased access that we got for our meat into the UK market was so important," Mr Tehan said.

"That's why we continue to keep working on a European Union Free Trade Agreement while I've been in weekly negotiations with my Indian counterpart on an Indian Free Trade Agreement."

Patrick Hutchinson said red meat exports to China were worth $3 billion a year before the pandemic. (ABC News: Bec Whetham)

New markets not enough

Mr Hutchinson said before the pandemic started Australia exported 300,000 tonnes of beef and 100,000 tonnes of sheep meat to China every year.

The red meat trade was worth $3 billion annually and Mr Hutchinson said the additional markets did not make up the shortfall.

"The amount of product that we would be sending to UK in the first quarter here is less than the market share we've lost in China," he said. 

"I think, as we progress down this path, that the reintroduction of better trade and lifting of temporary suspensions will be good news for a number of processors and the farmers that supply them as well."