"Fast Eddie" Zhi unveils plans to fly up to 4000 live sheep a week to China

Chinese-Australian businessman Mr Zhi said he has been in the animal by-product business for 31 years, initially exporting sheep skins to China before turning his focus to red meat about 10 years ago.

At present he's working on a plan to send up to 2000 head of live sheep per shipment to China on two flights a week, one out of Perth and one out of Melbourne.

Mr Zhi said he was working to get a contract with an air freight company and planned for the flights to go into Qingdao to take advantage of a subsidy of $300,000 per flight.

"Near Qingdao there are a few abattoirs, one of them is owned by Yarra Corp... they are already slaughtering Australian beef so for us to adapt that to slaughtering Australian sheep is quite easy," he said.

"At the moment I am trying to negotiate a four-year contract with someone who will give us a Boeing 747 or 777F at a price of 120,000RMB... which is about $30,000 an hour.

"If I can get that rate and I am able to claim the subsidy from the Chinese government, then I will play almost nothing.

"The only challenge I'm facing is when express parcels and air freight come from China, they're not going to Perth, they're going to Sydney and Melbourne."

Mr Zhi said sending live sheep to China was also made more feasible by the possibility of using offal as a value add.

"In China they value the offals much more than we do .... in China a sheep head is very prized meat and sheep hooves and bones are also very appreciated," he said.

"So if you consider it holistically, I believe it will work plus you should be able to get a premium for fresh meat rather than frozen carcases.

"To start with I think we will probably try Dorpers, which I believe are a good species to export."

Mr Zhi hopes to have the flights to be up and running by the time Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visits China later this year.

A date is yet to be announced for the visit, but its ties to the 50th anniversary of the historic trip made by former prime minister Gough Whitlam would suggest a date in late October or early November.

"That's my plan but if worst comes to worst, we have to get it done before the Chinese New Year in early February," he said.

Mr Zhi believes he can work with Chinese processors to help set up training programmes for workers wanting to work within Australia's meat processing sectors.

"I believe I can work with abattoirs to satisfy [visa requirements] by training workers in their abattoir and sending them to Australia to work," he said.

"I've already got a couple of companies very interested in that... and they will kill our sheep."

Sheep already get flown by air to Malaysia for slaughter on a regular basis.

WA Farmers president John Hassell said he believed the plan had potential and was worth exploring.

"As long as it's economical and he can make it happen, I think it's worth having a crack at," he said.

"I think every extra market we can get is a good thing.

"I still maintain we don't want to stop the live trade, but every market we can get for our sheep is a good thing.

"It feeds protein to people in the world and we need to increase the value for our livestock as much as we can."

A Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson confirmed the department was aware of Mr Zhi's interest in live sheep exports to China, but said it did not comment on individual commercial proposals.