Kangaroos in Zhengzhou Zoo in Zhengzhou, Central China's Henan Province Photo: IC

Australia is hoping to boost exports to China of a kind of meat that will be new to most consumers: kangaroo.

"I've never been to Australia, but I've known about kangaroos for a long time," said Wang Xiaowei, an employee of a design company in Beijing.

"A mother kangaroo carrying a baby in her pocket looked so cute that I remembered it from the first time I watched an animal TV show when I was 5," Wang, who is in his late 20s, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

But when asked whether he would be interested in eating kangaroo meat, he gave a cry of astonishment. "I can't imagine that. It sounds cruel!"

It's unknown how many people in China would have the same view as Wang, but diners in the country are known for their interest in trying exotic cuisines.

In Australia, there are far more kangaroos than there are people. The number of the animals varies between 30 and 60 million each year due to various factors such as climate, according to official estimates.

This is nearly double the country's resident population, which stood at around 23.30 million as of Thursday, according to a population clock on the website of the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

However, despite the abundance of kangaroos, Australian consumers do not have that much enthusiasm for eating them, according to a widely quoted 2008 government survey.

A total of 41.5 percent of respondents said they had not eaten kangaroo, and almost half of them "either objected to eating kangaroo or thought kangaroo was unhealthy," said the survey findings.

For the respondents who had eaten kangaroo, the majority tried it on one-off occasions and were not regular consumers of it, possibly because the animal is loved as a symbol of their country.

Hopping into China

Australia's kangaroo industry currently employs over 4,000 people and generates an income of more than $270 million per year, according to figures from the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia. And despite the limited enthusiasm for eating the animals in Australia, the country is hoping that China might be more interested.

China is Australia's biggest trading partner, and some believe this could be translated into great business potential for kangaroo trade between the two countries.

"This is something that ticks a whole range of boxes," Australian Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce was quoted as saying by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in a report in mid-October.

"It is the most environmentally appropriate meat if you look at it from the Australian side. I'm going to try and look at further discussions with the Chinese, because I think there is a big prospect for a market there,"      said Joyce.

In the domestic Australian market, kangaroo fillets are sold in supermarkets at much lower prices than beef, but there are signs that Australian traders might pursue a different strategy in China.

An article published by Reuters on November 19 revealed that Macro Meats, Australia's largest kangaroo meat processor, has partnered with Chinese agribusiness giant New Hope Group to supply kangaroo products in the Chinese market.

"Our strategy will see us place kangaroo meat only in high-end butchers, not in supermarkets," Ray Borda, founder and managing director of Macro Meats, was quoted as saying in the article.

Not so fast

While the Australians are not hiding their hopes to push Kangaroo meat exports to China, there are some doubts domestically over just how much potential it has to find a way into Chinese eating habits.

"As far as I'm concerned, pork remains the staple meat for most Chinese families, and it will stay that way for the foreseeable future," Ma Wenfeng, a senior analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Chinese consumers have been eating more beef and lamb in recent years, partly because of efforts to promote the health benefits of these alternatives to pork, but Ma said they won't dislodge pork as the nation's favorite meat.

The latest publicly available customs data for meat imports offers an indication of China's culinary preferences.

In the first seven months of the year, meat import volumes rose by 32.2 percent year-on-year to a total of 1.46 million tons, with pork imports topping the list at 789,000 tons.

Poultry was the second-highest at 361,000 tons, while beef and lamb imports held third and fourth spot, at 163,000 tons and 147,000 tons, respectively.

Even for novelty seekers who have already tried kangaroo meat, attitudes appear to be less than encouraging so far.

Chen Xiaofei, 28, traveled to Australia earlier this year, where she bought four packages of kangaroo fillets, weighing 200 grams each, both for herself and as gifts for her friends.

"It tastes a bit like beef, but is much tougher and rather insipid," Chen said, adding "my friends thought the same."

Even though several months have passed since her trip, one package of kangaroo meat remains untouched at her home.

"I don't think I would try it again," she told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Shan Jianguo, who works for a frozen meat product company in Beijing, told the Global Times on Wednesday that his company used to sell frozen kangaroo meat products imported from Australia, but has recently stopped the supply because "only a few people are really interested in buying it."

While there may be many people in China willing to try kangaroo meat, Ma at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant said it was hard to see it taking off.

But these concerns are not going to stop Ray Borda of Macro Meats from sampling the market. "It would be huge if we could get access to the Chinese market and they are certainty very interested," the Reuters report quoted him as saying.