Officials signed two agreements for the import of 500,000 cattle and 3 million pigs ‘over the coming years’, said the South China Morning Post.

Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang said other meats, particularly sheep, would also be in demand.

Romanian livestock breeder, Dumitru Grigoean was clear that this was good news.

“It would be a pity to miss the opportunity," said Mr Grigorean. "Of course I'd earn a lot more if I made computer tablets like the Chinese do, but I'm only good at raising cattle," he told the South China Morning Post.

He said several members of the cattle breeder association, running 2,000 cattle each, had signed up to sell to China.

But, Food Industry trade union leader, Dragos Frumosu, said Romania’s herd could not keep up with Chinese needs. Government figures show that cattle numbers have halved to 1.2 million after being at 2.8 million in 2001.

Mr Frumosu suggested a solution would be to set up ‘joint farms’ with Chinese capital or expand smaller farms with European Union funds.

Currently, most of Romania’s meat exports go to Arab countries, although it imports half its pork and 70 per cent of beef.

Shuanghui International's recent takeover of Smithfield Foods in the United States, which owns a pork producer near Timisoara in western Romania, will partly solve the pork exports issue.