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澳大利亞悉尼——澳大利亞即將與中國簽訂活牛出口協議，為供應商打開一個重要市場。供應商們稱，由于受到中國對新鮮牛肉的需求的推動，每年的活牛出口量可能會增長到100萬頭。
該協議可能最終會使澳大利亞的活牛出口量增加一倍。供應商稱，這可能會在澳大利亞國內，以及包括印度尼西亞、越南在內的其他活牛進口國，加劇牛肉市場的競爭，進而推高價格。
澳大利亞農業部長巴納比·喬伊斯(Barnaby Joyce)周五在塔姆沃思對記者表示，“我們即將宣布一項對澳大利亞牛肉產業相當重要的消息。”塔姆沃思位于悉尼以北，是一個農業中心。
他表示，澳中兩國的檢疫人員為這項出口協議已經努力了大約10年，而且這份出口協議并不屬于澳中兩國之間，談判已經進入最后一輪的一項貿易協定。
澳大利亞牲畜出口商委員會(Australian Livestock Exporters’ Council)首席執行官艾利森·彭福爾德(Alison Penfold)表示，業內官員及政府官員在過去12月里，就這項協議密集地開展工作。協議的達成取決于中國國家質量監督檢驗檢疫總局。彭福爾德表示，最后的障礙是，澳方要滿足通常適用于活體動物出口的衛生要求，其中涉及確保活牛無病、檢測、檢疫期，以及壁虱等寄生蟲的處理。
喬伊斯說，“這明顯是一個重要的市場信號。”他還表示，“牛的價格會上漲，這是好事。”他指的是，隨著出口需求推高國內市場及現有海外市場上牛肉的價格，供應商們希望價格能從每公斤兩澳元（約合10.6元人民幣）提高到三澳元以上。
澳大利亞每年向印度尼西亞、越南、以色列出口大約113萬頭牛，價值8.6億美元，而且澳大利亞最近也與柬埔寨達成了協議。北領地養牛業協會(Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association)會長戴維·沃里納(David Warriner)警告稱，對中國的出口將會慢慢增加，需要一段時間才能達到100萬頭。
出口商則比較樂觀。
“我們最大的市場是印度尼西亞，”澳大利亞最大的私人牲畜出口公司Wellard的老板莫羅·巴爾扎里尼(Mauro Balzarini)說。“我們希望等中國市場打開了，就不只出口活牛，也會在北京等地方建立加工肉類的合資企業。”該公司每年收購并出口大約40萬頭牛，主要銷往印度尼西亞和越南。（中國進出口網）
SYDNEY, Australia — Australia is close to signing an agreement to ship live cattle to China, opening up a significant market for producers, who said exports could grow to 1 million animals a year, driven by demand there for fresh beef.
The agreement could eventually result in a doubling of Australia's export volumes for live cattle. It is likely to increase competition for beef and help lift prices, both in the domestic market and among other buyers of the country's live cattle, including Indonesia and Vietnam, producers said.
“We are on the cusp of a new major announcement for the Australian beef industry,” Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce told reporters Friday in Tamworth, an agricultural center north of Sydney.
He said that quarantine officials in Australia and China had worked for about 10 years on the export agreement and that the deal was separate from a trade agreement that is in the final round of negotiations between the two countries.
Alison Penfold, chief executive of the Australian Livestock Exporters' Council, said industry and government officials had worked intensively on the agreement during the past 12 months. Completion of the deal rests with the Chinese General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine. The final hurdles involve Australia's meeting health protocols commonly applied to live exports, including disease-free cattle, testing, quarantine periods and treatment for parasites like ticks, Penfold said.
“This is obviously a big market signal,” Joyce said. He added: “You're about to be paying more for cattle, and this is good,” referring to producers' hopes that the price of beef would rise from around 2 Australian dollars a kilogram — a bit less than $0.80 a pound — to above 3 Australian dollars, as demand for exports squeezes prices higher in domestic and existing offshore markets.
Australia exports about 1.13 million cattle a year, worth about $860 million, to Indonesia, Vietnam and Israel, and an agreement was recently reached with Cambodia. Warriner cautioned that the exports to China would build slowly and take some time to reach 1 million.
Exporters were more upbeat.
“Our biggest market is Indonesia,” said Mauro Balzarini, owner of Australia's largest privately owned cattle exporting company, Wellard, which buys and ships about 400,000 head of cattle mostly to Indonesia and Vietnam each year. “We hope once the market in China opens up, we won't just export live cattle, but we will have joint ventures as well for processing, in places like Beijing.”
