The Chinese are on a massive health kick and an Australian vitamins company has just the medicine to meet their need.
The China-Australia free trade agreement means the tariffs, equating to 20 per cent on average for Blackmores products or over 35 per cent for fish oil supplements, will be wound down to zero over four years.
Blackmores chief executive Christine Holgate said the move will help her company compete with lower cost and inferior quality operators.
It will also create jobs in Australia.
The company has employed 100 extra people in Sydney over the past six months.
It expects profits to grow at 75 per cent for the full year.
Ms Holgate told the parliament's treaties committee on Friday that her company's sales to China last year amounted to $2 million and this year they have grown to more than $75 million.
"Chinese consumers are coming here, buying our products, taking them off the shelf and exporting them to China," she said.
Ms Holgate said jobs and profit were not the only motivators for supporting the free trade agreement - there was a "moral conscience" element in helping China address its health needs.
Meanwhile, Australian sheep and cattle farmers expect to be hugely disadvantaged in competition with their New Zealand rivals if the free trade deal with China is not ratified by the end of the year.
New Zealand beef and sheep meat will be tariff-free next year under the NZ free trade deal with the Asian giant.
Australian Red Meat Industry chairman David Larkin said it was vital that comparable Australian products received similar, albeit lagging, access arrangements as a matter of urgency.
The Communications, Electrical and Plumbing Union was less enthusiastic about the deal, arguing on Friday that it was a dud finalised by negotiators in a hurry who had been outplayed by their Chinese counterparts.
The union is upset the deal allows Chinese companies to circumvent usual skilled migration requirements by negotiating special concessions with the immigration department for using Chinese workers.
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