This is despite new revelations that huge tonnages of Chinese produce have swamped Australian shores in the past six months.

The Government's own figures reveal startling amounts of fresh, frozen and packaged foods are being imported every day from China – despite much of the same food being produced by Australian farmers.

However, this week officers from the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries confirmed in Senate Estimates that no work was being done to analyse what impact cheap Chinese imports were having on the Australian farm sector either now, or if and when Australia signed a free trade agreement with China.

An FTA with China has been under negotiation for the past few years, and talks to progress the deal are still ongoing.

Greens Senator, Christine Milne, asked what the department's assessment of the impact of any free trade deal with China was, particularly for Australia's vegetable industry, but the department was not able to answer the question.

Senator Milne took the issue a step back then, asking officers the same question in relation to imports already making it to Australia.

DAFF's general manager of bilateral Trade, Victoria Anderson, said Australia's agricultural trade balance would imply things weren't going too badly.

"In terms of our agricultural trade balance with China we export $3 billion worth of agricultural products to China and import around half a billion dollars," Ms Anderson said.

"So our trade balance isn't doing too badly in that sense."

Yet Senator Milne was not satisfied with that answer, and argued Australian farmers were already finding it hard to compete with cheap produce from China.

"My issue is that Australian vegetable growers are almost being denied access to vegetable processors now because processors can import cheap frozen vegetables from China much much cheaper than the Australian growers can deliver to the factory," Senator Milne said.

"The Chinese vegetables are subsidised by poor environmental practices, and very low wages and frequent human rights abuses.

"Now Australian farmers can't compete against that. Where has that assessment been?"

Ms Anderson confirmed again there had been no specific analysis of such a problem.