AUSTRALIA’S Bindaree Beef Group said Tuesday it sold a major stake to Shenzhen-listed Shandong Delisi Food Co., seizing on a free trade agreement as China seeks new markets to satisfy its rapidly growing appetite for meat.

    In a statement, Bindaree Beef, Australia’s fourth-largest meat processor, said it sold 45 percent of the company to Shandong Delisi for A$145 million (US$105 million), giving it access to the Chinese rival’s sales network, which reaches some 700 million people.

    The deal will be an early test of whether a free trade agreement signed in June between Australia and China, its No. 1 export market, will drive up trade now worth more than A$100 billion annually.

    The free trade agreement will over a decade cut import tariffs on Australian beef completely, from up to 25 percent currently, according to the Australian government.

    “With the benefits from the free trade agreement flowing to the Australian beef industry, the opportunity to become a premium beef supplier to China is one that we expect will bring enormous benefits, not just to Bindaree but to Australia’s broader beef industry,” the Australian firm’s chief financial officer, James Roger, said in the statement.

    As China’s middle class grows, its beef consumption is expected to reach 8 million tons a year by 2020, from 7.25 million tons or 10 percent of global consumption currently, Bindaree said.

    In July, Bindaree, which processes 6,000 cattle per week locally and has a small presence in Shanghai, sold an undisclosed stake to meat marketing company Sanger Australia. Then in September, the newly expanded company said it started selling products on U.S.-listed Chinese online retailer JD.com Inc., the first Australian meat producer to do so. (SD-Agencies)