Cattle ranchers in Argentina , which recently edged out neighbour Brazil as the leading exporter of beef to China, are hoping to build upon that status by winning Beijing’s approval for more meatpacking plants, industry officials and other sources said. An Argentine industry group is in China looking to promote the South American country’s T-bone steaks and sirloins, while Chinese teams recently inspected meat plants in Argentina, the sources said. The push, after a spike in Argentine beef exports to the world’s second biggest economy this year, underscored how China is looking to diversify its protein supply, shaking up the global meat trade as African swine fever sweeps its pig herd. It is also an important windfall for Latin America’s third largest economy, which is battling to escape a deep recession and facing a debt crisis ahead of elections in October that are likely to usher in a new government. Argentina, which traditionally exports cheaper cuts to China, reported that its beef sales to the country more than doubled to US$870 million in the first seven months of the year, data from its official INDEC statistics agency showed. Chinese customs data showed that amounted to around 185,604 tonnes of beef, giving it the top share of the Chinese import market at 21.7 per cent, ahead of Brazil’s 21.03 per cent. That volume was a jump of 129 per cent compared to the year before. Santiago del Solar, chief of staff to Argentina’s agriculture minister, said there were many slaughterhouses seeking approval and that China was working with Argentine food safety body, Senasa. Fires in Amazon rainforest are being fuelled by US-China trade war, experts say “We will have news in the coming months about more pork, poultry and beef slaughterhouses being approved for China,” he said, adding that Senasa was carrying some inspections on behalf of China using an “honour system”. Argentina’s ranchers are now looking for more. A trade delegation is in China to meet potential buyers of the country’s meat, an industry official said. The source said that a Chinese team had recently travelled to Argentina to inspect meat plants. “The Chinese were there last week in Buenos Aires, they were doing inspections and made good progress. The plants issue is pretty good, but with China they make approvals when they want to do it,” the source said. “We are optimistic with the results. It seems they did not find anomalies, but yes, it depends on the time frame of the Chinese.” The progress comes after China granted export licences to 25 Brazilian meatpacking plants earlier this month. Brazil has also experienced a surge in meat demand from China. China’s General Administration of Customs, which approves imports, also recently gave the green light to imports of soy meal from Argentina, following decades of talks between the two countries. China turns to Argentine soy meal in fresh blow to US farmers A manager at a state-owned Chinese trading house said he had met an Argentine firm last week during the delegation’s visit. He declined to name the firm, which had met Chinese customs officials, but said it had been approved for exports and was seeking further plant approvals. Miguel Schiariti, president of the CICCRA meat industry chamber, said a Chinese team had recently inspected of an Argentine plant by video alongside Senasa, with the aim of approving the facility for export. “There are 11 meat plants ready to be approved and [the Chinese] are doing it one by one. But approval is taking a long time,” he said. “These places would meet the criteria for approval, but the Chinese have always been very cautious, despite the problems they have with pork. It seems to me that plants will not get approved before November.”