BOILING DEMAND

Zhi Tieniu, head of the Tianjin meat association in north China, where sheep meat is always popular, believes New Zealand sheep will be a "new hottie in town" with its high quality and relatively cheap price.

Sheep consumption in China has been on the rise in recent years, but there are not so many large-scale domestic farm. The result is a gap between demand and supply -- a perfect opportunity for imported meat.

"New Zealand is traditionally strong in sheep raising and therefore has a steady supply for export. Sometimes, we see at Chinese supermarkets in the first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, the sheep meat from New Zealand is even cheaper than that labelled with 'made-in-China', " said Zhi.

Zhi said there's no significant difference between the imported and home-produced meat, but those branded with New Zealand please Chinese consumers worried about food safety.

Zhao Rui, who works for an American business consulting company based in Beijing and is always a fan of imported food for the quality, shows great interest in New Zealand meat.

"At least, I don't have to worry about feeding my baby boy with meat injected with water, a shoddy way that some black-hearted business people often do to increase the meat weight," she said.

Madame Song, who owns a shop of imported meat on Taobao, China's largest e-commerce platform, is confident of the future of her business. The most popular item of her shop is the frozen lamb imported from New Zealand, which sells at 29.9 yuan (4.8 U.S. dollars) per kg. She sold more than 2,400 orders of the meat within a month.

"There's no surprise that the meat has become the best seller. New Zealand enjoys a high reputation on its sheep product. Most of the buyers are young, well-educated white collars, who prefer value to price. Plus compared to domestic lamb, the price is almost the same," she said.