Chinese dairy imports to rise this year
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This is due to tighter stock levels and reduced Chinese domestic milk production during 2016.
In addition, higher culling rates and the number of small/medium farms exiting China’s industry are expected to hamper recovery in milk production.
As a result, Rabobank predicts domestic milk volumes will only rise by 1% during 2017.
However, recent increases in global dairy prices have brought imported WMP prices in line with China’s domestic milk prices.
Therefore processors could increasingly turn to domestic milk sources, but only if production can keep pace. ■