中国乳制品月报

It was in 2001 that the business community began talking in terms of Bric countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – as potential powerhouses of the world economy. For those in the dairy commodity trade China and in some cases Russia were the most important of these, depending on their product mix and geography. However the Bric concept is looking a little worn nowadays with only China and India showing serious growth, whilst Brazil stagnates and Russia – well we know the story. Now the general approach has had a refresh and the talk is of the emerging importance of the “Mint” countries – Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey. This year we’ve worked for customers on dairy export and investment opportunities in South East Asia (often overlooked in the rush to China), Latin America, the Middle East/North Africa region and Sub-Saharan Africa. An increasingly competitive world market – where milk supply has moved ahead whilst demand has faltered – makes the prospecting of new opportunities and business partners essential.

Yet we come back to the fact that in recent years China has been the largest and fastest-growing dairy importing country by a wide margin. Clearly we don’t know how long it will take in 2015 for China’s buying to pick up again. However medium- to long-term demand is not likely to be threatened: the realities of the local dairy sector and the country’s economics dictate imported dairy will remain a key feature of the market. So China will be key for dairy exporters to address.