From the CEO's Desk: China Industry Visit – September 2026
Updated: Sep 30
Earlier this month, myself and Sheep Producers Australia Director of Policy Corinne Dooley, travelled to China as part of the Australia-China Livestock and Red Meat Industry Cooperation Program.
It's a joint initiative led by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and the Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC), with support from the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations.
The visit followed a Chinese red meat delegation to Western Australia in August, where they spent a week seeing Australia’s red meat supply chain first-hand.
Our visit to China continued that exchange, giving us the opportunity to better understand China’s livestock production, processing and market.
It culminated in the signing of an MoU between the China Meat Association (CMA), AMIC and MLA, building on a longstanding industry relationship and the China Australia Red Meat Agreement first established in 2019.
Why China matters
China is one of Australia’s most important markets for sheepmeat.
It's worth putting some numbers around it, because they best explain exactly why this relationship gets the attention it does.
In the 2025 calendar year, Australia shipped 119,163 tonnes of sheepmeat into China, worth $934 million - enough for China to overtake the United States as our single largest market for sheepmeat by volume (MLA, 2026 market snapshots).
China is our largest market for mutton, and our second-largest market for lamb (MLA, 2025). In the twelve months to November 2025 alone, sheepmeat exports to China were close to 109,000 tonnes - about 58,000 tonnes of lamb and 51,000 tonnes of mutton.
I want to share what I saw in China, beyond the numbers, because I think it matters for every sheep producer reading this - for context about where our biggest market is heading.
A focus on productivity and quality
One of the most interesting insights from the visit was how China’s agricultural sector has evolved over the past five decades. Market reform, growing consumer demand and rapid commercialisation have driven the development of increasingly sophisticated and integrated agricultural supply chains. At the same time, a very large number of farmers continue to operate at a small scale, meaning highly advanced commercial production sits alongside much more traditional farming systems.
The strongest message we heard about the sector’s direction was the increasing focus on productivity, genetics and meat quality, particularly across the beef and sheep industries. That focus is significant at a time when livestock numbers are not expanding - China's sheep flock and cattle herd have both contracted in recent years. The emphasis is increasingly on producing more value and improving productivity from the animals already in the system, rather than growth simply through increasing livestock numbers.
Alongside this, China's industry has broader priorities around supply security, risk management and more sustainable and resource-efficient production. But the diversity of production systems also creates a familiar challenge: how to get improved genetics, technology and production practices out to producers and achieve adoption at scale.
We saw this focus at several points during the visit. For example, in Bairin Right Banner in Inner Mongolia, we visited one of the demonstration sites connected to the Saina Breeding Sheep Cooperative. This Cooperative has developed the Bairin Grassland “Black Pearl” - a second-cross progeny produced by joining black-headed Suffolk rams to Dorper-Mongolian crossbred ewes - bred with the aim of improving growth, meat yield and quality while retaining adaptation to local conditions.
The Cooperative is part of a broader model connecting breeding centres, local farmers and herders, and more coordinated finishing and marketing systems. Improved rams and breeding females are used to help producers progressively improve their ewe flocks, supported by technical advice and demonstration of the productivity gains that can be achieved.
Rather than simply developing improved genetics and expecting producers to adopt them, the approach is designed to make adoption commercially attractive. Local programs include opportunities for farmers to exchange existing ewes for improved breeding females, while improved progeny can move into coordinated feeding and finishing systems and be bought back at a premium for marketing. Demonstration farms are also being used to show producers the results before asking them to change their own systems.
In Tianjin, we visited Aoqun Animal Husbandry, one of China’s leading meat sheep breeding operations and home to the National (Tianjin) Meat Sheep Performance Testing Centre. The operation has a strong Australian connection, with Australian White genetics forming an important part of its breeding program with Chinese breeds, including Hu sheep, to combine meat production traits with the reproductive performance and adaptation of local genetics.
The broader operation includes a 10,000-head flock, supported by several additional breeding and demonstration sites used to increase the availability of improved genetics to the wider industry as well as finishing operations.
We saw its core breeding flock and the technologies being used to accelerate genetic improvement. Aoqun brought in CT scanning technology to produce high-resolution 3D images that allow muscle, fat and bone composition to be measured in live animals and incorporated into breeding decisions. This information sits alongside individual electronic identification, feed-efficiency measurement and detailed individual performance recording.
It was a sophisticated example of the investment Chinese businesses are making in increasing production as well as measuring and selecting for productivity and meat quality.
What was particularly interesting was that China's challenge wasn't only developing better genetics, but ensuring those genetics reached commercial production and family farms. It's a challenge we recognise in Australia too. Genetic gain and new technology only deliver value when they translate into productivity on farm - a message that has also come through strongly in The Future Flock consultations.
Systems built for scale
We also visited vertically integrated operations bringing breeding, feeding and processing together, as well as large-scale contained feeding and finishing systems.
The production environment is very different from Australia. In some regions, land management and environmental policies are influencing how and where livestock can be grazed and this contributed to a greater use of housed and contained feeding systems.
Contained and housed feeding is a significant feature of sheep production in the regions we visited. This is influenced by land availability, grazing restrictions and environmental management as well as the drive for more controlled and consistent production.
It reinforced for me the importance of Australia's own production advantages. Our pasture-based systems, combined with our genetics, animal health status, food safety systems and ability to produce consistently high-quality sheepmeat, give us a strong position in global markets.
At the same time, seeing how other countries are investing in productivity, technology and supply-chain integration is a useful reminder that we can't assume those competitive advantages will simply look after themselves.
From paddock to hot pot
On the food side, it was a great reminder of how differently sheepmeat is enjoyed across the world. An estimated 90 per cent of lamb consumed in mainland China is eaten out-of-home, with hot pot an important part of the market.
Thinly sliced lamb and mutton feature heavily, while whole-animal utilisation is much more visible than it often is in Australia, with value placed across a different mix of cuts and products.
Whole-animal use is a point of real pride; very little goes to waste. One meal in Mongolia - a whole roasted lamb (Kao Quan Yang), the skin golden and crackling, the meat slow-cooked underneath - was one of the best things I've eaten on any industry trip.
Experiences like that are a useful reminder that growing demand for Australian sheepmeat overseas isn't simply about exporting more product. Understanding how consumers buy, prepare and enjoy sheepmeat is fundamental to growing demand and extracting more value from the whole carcase.
Building the relationships that count
The heart of this trip was relationships, and the updated MoU we signed reflects a formal foundation to continue that work. In our discussions with our Chinese counterparts, we identified genuine areas for future collaboration: genetics, animal nutrition and feeding systems, meat standards and grading, technology and the application of artificial intelligence.
There is a bigger principle behind this cooperation. Growing overall consumer demand for sheepmeat benefits producers across sheep-producing and exporting countries. Rather than simply competing for a larger share of the same market.
It’s an approach we have seen through other international collaborations, including the Tri-Lamb program with the US and New Zealand, and the Global Sheep Producers Forum.
We also spent time with young Chinese producers and industry leaders, and there's real appetite there for closer people-to-people links - including through programs like the Global Sheep Producers Forum's Next Generation initiative.
What came through strongly was something that transcends borders: young people want to feel connected to their industry, optimistic about its future and inspired by the opportunities it can offer them. Creating these connections and investing in the next generation of industry leaders is something Sheep Producers Australia takes seriously here at home, and it is just as important internationally.
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What this means for Australian producers
I know the instinctive reaction to "China is investing heavily in its own genetics and lifting quality" might be some nervousness about future demand for Australian sheepmeat.
China's investment in genetics, productivity and meat quality is worth watching closely. It will continue to develop its own sheep industry, just as Australia must continue investing in the productivity and competitiveness of ours. But growth in China's domestic industry and demand for imported sheepmeat are not necessarily opposing forces. A greater focus on quality sheepmeat can also help build consumer expectations and demand for the attributes Australia is well placed to supply.
And even with almost 109,000 tonnes of sheepmeat landing there in the year to November alone, China's own production is nowhere near meeting demand from a population of its size. This is a market where, as one of our Chinese counterparts put it to me, "there's room for all of us".
Our opportunity is to understand where the Chinese market is heading, continue to build demand for sheepmeat overall, and ensure Australian sheepmeat remains relevant and competitive as the market evolves.
The MoU provides a platform to turn the discussions from this visit into practical areas of cooperation between the Australian and Chinese red meat industries.
Sheep Producers Australia will continue to engage in that work to progress opportunities that benefit Australian sheep producers. I'll keep you updated as that develops.
For me, the biggest takeaway from the visit was that China is not a static market. Its sheep industry, production systems and consumers are changing - and understanding those changes is essential if Australia wants to remain a trusted and competitive supplier into the future.
