Cattle will be shipped to China within months following an export agreement signed today which gives unprecedented market access to the Australian export industry.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 18 seconds 3 m 18 s Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce speaks on a live trade deal between Australia and China ( Belinda Varischetti ) Download 1.5 MB

That's according to Federal Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce who said a cattle health protocol agreement has been reached between China and Australia, making Australia the first country to export feeder and slaughter cattle into China.

The deal to send live cattle to China has been in the works for the past decade, but discussions about health standards have been the sticking point.

Australian Livestock Exports Council chief executive officer Alison Penfold said the agreement delivered unprecedented market access for Australian cattle, and underpinned a one million-head trade to Asia and the region.

She said she hoped to see trade begin in the "next couple of months", however she said commercial agreements were yet to be finalised, Exporter Supply Chain Assurance System supply chains needed to be established, and import permits needed to be issued by Chinese authorities.

"While good access is provided, it comes with conditions on exporters in preparing consignments, including that cattle must be HGP free, be resident on the farm of origin for three months, and must be pregnancy tested empty," Ms Penfold said.

"Cattle will need to be prepared in registered quarantine premises and in line with the welfare requirements of the Australian Standards for the Export of Livestock.

"There are also specific requirements for the export of feeder and slaughter cattle from Australia’s bluetongue virus zone to China’s bluetongue virus areas and limitations on ports of entry.

"That said there is access for northern and southern cattle."

Mr Joyce said the first year of trade could see about 40,000 head exported, and this number would then increase quickly.

"This deal has the capacity to be absolutely massive," he said.

"It's good for Australia because it says to people in the protein market ... that if you're in the protein market you've got a strong future.

"It gives people the capacity to ramp up, knowing that there is a strong future not just for this year but for a long period of time ahead.

"People can plan for that and prepare for it and position themselves properly so that they get a better return back through their farm gate."

Australia's total live cattle exports in 2013 were 1.1 million.

The news comes just days after the Indonesian Government issued 50,000 cattle import permits for the current third quarter, an allocation well below the 250,000 permits allocated the quarter before.