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Kind of bad taste to eat your allies' lunch while they're confronting China on your behalf no?
China gorges on American grain-fed beef amid shrinking supplies from Down Under | ReutersBEIJING/CHICAGO, Oct 1 (Reuters) - As Australian beef exports to China wither amid diplomatic tensions, demand there for U.S. grain-fed beef has soared, fuelled by the appetites of a growing Chinese middle class.
Hotpot restaurants, Japanese barbecue chains and steakhouses, all expanding in the world's No. 2 economy, are swapping out Australian beef for U.S. meat. Several Australian suppliers were banned last year and shipments from others take too long to clear customs.
Beef imports from the U.S. have grown to 83,000 tonnes in the first eight months of 2021, nine times the amount in the same period a year ago, according to Chinese customs data, and are set to be worth more than $1 billion this year. Australia also fell behind the United States this year as the top exporter of grain-fed beef to China.