“The air-freighted consignments from Alliance Group and Greenlea Premier Meats mark a significant step towards enabling permanent access for New Zealand chilled meat to China,” Guy said.
“Chilled meat is a premium, high value and high growth product so this is great news for farmers, producers and the wider red meat industry. It’s also welcome news for Chinese consumers.
Guy hoped these were the first of many more shipments expected to be exported to China as part of the trial.
“New Zealand produces high quality chilled meat, and this trial is an exciting opportunity to add to our already significant frozen meat exports to China. This is the kind of product that will end up in high-end retail stores and white table cloth restaurants.”
New Zealand’s frozen red meat exports to China represented $1.14 billion in trade for the year ended March 31.
The start of the trial adds to recent successes, such as the agreement of formal access for New Zealand bovine blood products last week.
