Australian citrus has broken down the trade barriers and will be exported to China next year.

After more than five years of negotiations, a formal quarantine agreement was reached at a meeting between officials from the two countries in Beijing.

The protocols cover all major commercial varieties of Aussie citrus, but Australian Citrus Growers' president Mark Chown said his industry still has work to do.

"There are some phytosanitary requirements which of course we have to comply with," he said.

"There certainly are some challenges there, we've got to do all of our fruit in cold sterilisation, but of course there are places in Australia which - particularly for fruit fly - are already doing that successfully to other markets like Korea and Japan, so this country is following along the lines and there's certainly an overwhelming support to go forward from here."

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