A farmer rides his horse as he herds his cattle towards stockyards near the outback Queensland town of Aramac
A farmer rides his horse as he herds his cattle towards stockyards near the outback Queensland town of Aramac, west of Brisbane, in this May 22, 2002 file picture. Reuters/David Gray/Files

Australia is going to sign a significant cattle deal with China. The billion dollar deal on cattle export is a result of 10 years of negotiation.

Australia is going to ship one billion beef cattle to China every year as a part of the deal. The exported cattle will be worth more than one billion. The landmark deal between the countries is expected to double Australia's business in live-export. Everything, on the other hand, will be finalised after the free-trade agreement is discussed this weekend in Beijing. The formal announcement is expected to come after the critical talks on the matter, The Australian reported.

According to Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, Australia is confident about finalising the certification requirements and other protocols even though the deal has not been formally announced yet. Around 50,000 beef cattle are expected to be exported to China in the next 12 months. The cattle will be worth more than $50 million. The animals will be slaughtered in China and used as food. China is a huge market that is expected to buy one million beef cattle every year, according to Alison Penfold.

The chief executive of the Australian Live Exporters Council said that the deal will provide "massive opportunities" to Australian cattle producers. She said that the deal was expected to be finalised "sooner rather than later." A top level delegation of agriculture officials from China earlier visited Australia to record the technical details of the access standards as well as quarantine requirements. Australia has had a successful year so far in live exports. There were 1.13 million live beef cattle that had been exported in 2014 alone. The value of the beef cattle was more than a billion. Countries like Vietnam and Indonesia were at the receiving ends of Australia's export.

ABC News reported that 10 million cattle are going to be slaughtered in Australia by the end of 2014 due to the continuing drought in northern New South Wales and Queensland. There is suspicion that Australia may not have enough beef cattle left in the country to fulfil China's live-export demands. Australian beef cattle have so far been not allowed in China due to the bluetongue virus in northern Australia.

Contact the writer: s.mukhopadhyay@ibtimes.com.au