THERE'S little wonder our food industries are clamouring for a meaningful free trade agreement with China.

During the global financial crisis, China's resource demands effectively kept our economy out of recession. So what can China's burgeoning food market do for us? Can we get access?

UK retail gurus have crunched numbers about the shape of the global grocery market in the next five years.

Last week, IGD claimed China would have a grocery market bigger than the US. IGD forecasts the Chinese grocery market will be worth $1.2 trillion in 2014, outstripping the US, which will be worth an estimated $1.1 trillion.

I'm not sure how easy it is to measure grocery sales in China, however the gap between the world's two largest grocery markets has closed recently given the pain the financial crisis has dealt the US economy.

China slipped through that crisis without much pain; retail sales growth barely dipped below 10 per cent and will again speed up as the global economy recovers.

But the powerhouse of prosperity for China's food retailers is the continuing economic growth "miracle" in their country.

China's growth will also probably be almost triple that of the US. The drift of country workers to city jobs adds greater dimensions to the changes in the food retail sector.

More than half China's 1.3 billion people remain in the countryside, where the per capita income last year was estimated at $861.

City dwellers averaged earnings of $3466 last year, while their US city counterparts earn about $60,000. China can't hope to meet its own food needs today, so it will be in deeper trouble if IGD is correct.

But access for new Australian products and produce won't be an easy thing.

China is well-known for its ability to use a quid-pro-quo whenever haggling for trade - no matter how desperate the apparent future need for food.

In gaining access to its food markets, China will insist that its food exporters will have similar free access into our grocery market. And that's a scary prospect.