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The significant drop in Chinese dairy imports

A report from HighGround Dairy points out how much China has pulled-back on dairy imports. Citing Chinese Customs data from October: whole milk powder imports were down nearly 85 million pounds or 72 percent, skim milk powder imports are 13 million pounds or 27.5 percent lower, whey products imports are down 14 percent from a year ago and butter imports are 39.5 percent below October of 2013.

The only exception is cheese which is up 19 percent. The report notes the increased cheese business is not coming from the U.S. but from New Zealand and Australia.  U.S. cheese exports to China are 700 metric tonnes lower than a year ago.

U.S. dairy prices have been consistently above the GDT prices for months in effect pricing U.S. dairy products out of the global market. European prices plunged this year and those countries have ramped-up their dairy exports to China; Ireland and Denmark got over 20 percent of the market share in October.  The U.S. share of the Chinese skim milk powder import market went from 34 percent in 2013 to 25 percent in 2014.  During that period, Ireland’s market share went from less than 1 percent to nearly 16 percent.

Read the full report here: