Peter Hardwick, EBLEX head of trade development, said that despite global market volatility, there were clearly huge opportunities in China, not least for beef and lamb products with limited domestic demand in the UK.

Addressing a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary China Group (APPCG) in Westminster, Peter, whose remit also covers pig meat exports for BPEX, told the meeting how access to the Chinese market was secured for pork, the challenges of getting this and the procedures involved. He also focussed on key priority of securing access for beef and lamb in the future.

The meeting, which was also attended by Food and Farming Minister George Eustice, highlighted how food and drink is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK and the Chinese market is estimated to be worth a potential £39 billion this year.

Peter said: “Exports and helping secure market access is one of the cornerstones of EBLEX’s work. While we are mindful of global market volatility, the market in China clearly presents tremendous opportunities for the UK. Our experiences in securing market access to China for pork have clearly demonstrated this and it is a success story we would like to replicate for beef and lamb.

“In particular, there are huge opportunities for products such as fifth quarter which have limited demand in the UK, enabling us to add more value to the carcase. As such, it’s important to keep the subject on the agenda at the highest level and I was delighted to outline the opportunities and challenges to the APPCG.

“It must be remembered that securing market access for beef and lamb are will not happen overnight though and there is still some way to go in the negotiating process. We will, however, continue to work with Defra and UKTI in these negotiations which will hopefully reap rewards for the entire supply chain in the future.”