Chinese consumers will soon be able to buy New Zealand chilled meat in supermarkets, adding value to this country's exports.

New Zealand stands to add hundreds of millions of dollars to the value of its red meat exports to China, now that agreement has been reached over allowing chilled meat into the market.

In 2015 New Zealand exported $1.55 billion worth of red meat products to China, composed of $631 million of sheepmeat and $550m of beef. The remainder was "co-products" such as offal and intestines.

At present all of the meat is in frozen form, most of it ready cut in New Zealand.

Prime Minister John Key said the two countries had agreed to the protocols relating to chilled meat, and the first shipments would be only a matter of a month or so away.

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Australia recently stole a march on New Zealand when it was given permission to export chilled meat on a trial basis.

However with the latest agreement New Zealand may have leapfrogged Australia, depending on the protocols, said Sirma Karapeeva from the Meat Industry Association.

If the protocols were not for a trial, then it was a better deal.

"At the moment Australia has a small trial of shipments based on a handful of export premises, and we've taken that as a proxy for what it might mean for New Zealand," Karapeeva said.

It was hard to be accurate about the figures as the Australian exporters were cagey about their commercial contracts.

As an indication, in February New Zealand exported 5476 tonnes of chilled sheepmeat to the United Kingdom for $55m. Frozen sheepmeat exports to China of 18,251 tonnes for the same month were worth $69.6m.

The chilled meat segment in China is a growing one, both with retail ready packs in supermarkets or high end restaurants.

One of the factors militating against chilled meat has been concern over the logistics of keeping it safe.

Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy welcomed the breakthrough.

"We've got very strong air links, we've filling the planes with tourists coming down to New Zealand, coming back there's the opportunity for us to put chilled meat in the back of the plane," Guy said.

Also this week the Ministry for Primary Industries and the China Certification and Accreditation Administration co-signed a new Halal Arrangement, under which China will recognise New Zealand's halal regulation and certification regime for halal goods exported to China.

"This is a major step forward for New Zealand's halal meat producers, and it marks the first time China has recognised another county's halal regulatory and certification systems," Guy said.

He said China was New Zealand's number one market for halal certified meat. In the 12 months to September 2015, about 77,672 tonnes of halal certified meat was exported to China, representing 33 per cent of New Zealand's total halal certified exports.

There are 23 million Muslims in China, and it is a growing population.

Guy also co-signed an arrangement with China's Minister of Agriculture, Han Changfu, for New Zealand and China to develop an Agricultural Growth Partnership (AGP).

This is a public-private partnership that will use New Zealand expertise in research and training in areas such as agricultural policy exchange, dairy farmer training, livestock technology, animal health and disease control.