A beef industry expert says China could be a bigger beef export market than Indonesia if live trade can be opened up with Australia.
The country's demand is rising with boxed beef imports growing from 400 tonnes in March last year to 1,200 tonnes this March.
Steve Meerwald, from the WA Beef Council, says a live beef trade between the countries does come with its challenges.
"There are a whole range of issues that make that very complicated at the moment, and in fact it can't be done, but if the Chinese are able to deal with those issues and liberate that part of the trade, then I think that the Chinese feeder and slaughter market could be one that equals or even surpasses what Indonesia was."
While China won't offer much this year, Mr Meerwald, a former boss of live exporter company Wellards, hopes there will be opportunities through the next couple of seasons.
"I can assure everybody that there is a lot of work being done on this, it's not something that everybody is sitting back and thinking, 'Oh, this will be great when it happens'."
"Both from a commercial and a government point of view, from both the Australian and the Chinese side, there's lots of things happening that are leading towards the potential for that to be opened up."