The European Union has agreed to up the quota for grain-fed quality beef.

Under the new agreement, forged by the Government and Beef + Lamb New Zealand, the current quota of around 13,000 tonnes, or just three per cent of total beef exports, quadruples to 45,000 tonnes in 2012. All of it tariff free.

Jeanette Maxwell, Federated Farmers Meat and Fibre Chairperson, and a Canterbury sheep and beef farmer, says it is not just a beef opportunity, but an arable one as well.

Jeanette Maxwell says farmers appreciate having the tariff-free quota access, the challenge now is to fill it.

Grain supplies are increasingly tight and recent statistics show the national beef herd fell 3.7 per cent in 2010.

Farmers and the feedlots now need to plan ahead and work with the arable sector, to ensure the supply of high quality Kiwi grain.