Sunday 10 June 2012
China
Expanding the dairy industry
As the Chinese population continues to grow in numbers and wealth their government plans to invest US$1 trillion in agriculture over the next five years.
Expanding their domestic dairy industry is one of their top priorities and both Australia and New Zealand are playing a role in this.
China currently imports vast quantities of dairy products and one of the aims of their agricultural expansion is to reach 80 per cent self-sufficiency.
Fonterra are currently constructing their third Chinese farm and are planning on investing at least a further NZ$100 million on more.
They have also just announced the opening of an 'innovation centre' in Shanghai to develop products for the growing Chinese market.
The Kiwi dairy co-op plans to produce one billion litres of milk in China by 2020 but this will only be a small drop compared to the 70 billion litre ocean of milk Chinese consumers will be demanding by then.
To meet their rapidly growing demand for dairy China is importing vast numbers of cows, a record of 100,000 this year.
A third of these are being supplied by Australian Elders International Trading who are struggling to meet China's growing cattle needs.
Source: Argentine Beef Packers S.A.
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