In the restaurants of Beijing and Shanghai, patrons are asking where's the beef.

The question is proving a boon for Aussie farmers like Sam Burton-Taylor, who is shipping ever-larger quantities of meat to satisfy the voracious appetite of China's growing middle class.

Farmers like Sam Burton-Taylor are capitalising on Australia's reputation for high-quality produce at a time of dwindling trust among Chinese citizens in the safety of their own food. Credit:Jay Cronan

Australian beef sales to China surged six-fold in three years to a record $917 million in 2015, data from Meat & Livestock Australia show. The volume of beef shipped to China rose more than four times over the same period while the price received for the exports has jumped 37 per cent in the past 12 months.

While earnings from meat, which totalled $15 billion last year, aren't about to eclipse those from iron ore, the export boom signals Australia is successfully transitioning away from mining. Just as a sharp increase in demand from China for iron ore pushed up prices for the metal to a peak in 2011, so now is the Asian behemoth's shift toward consumption pushing up prices for beef.