Chinas Dairy Imports Set Record
Published: Friday, April 3, 2020
The following is from Lee Mielke, author of a dairy market column known as "Mielke Market Weekly."
China's January to February import statistics were released last week. HighGround Dairy used the historical 10-year average import volume split to estimate volumes in each month. The Chicago-based dairy broker reported that "2019 was a record for dairy imports to China, with the month of January also reaching an all-time high, making it difficult for 2020 imports to reflect gains."
"Year-to-date dairy imports were down 1.5 percent, adjusted for leap year, says HGD, with the largest decrease shown on skim milk powder. January to February imports reached 64,015MT, a three-year low to begin the year, with expectations that a shortage from New Zealand was to blame. Record SMP volumes were imported from Argentina so far this year," according to HGD.
"Whole milk powder from New Zealand was down 14,219MT from the prior year to 212,238MT, still the second highest on record to begin the year. China also reported historically strong imports from Australia."
"Cheese and butter imports started 2020 at record highs with New Zealand representing 75 percent of cheese imports and 95 percent of butter," according to HGD. "Fluid milk demand was also impressive and a record high for the first two months, as China pushed milk and dairy consumption throughout first quarter as a source of nutrients when COVID-19 was still spreading."
"Looking at New Zealand's February exports, China's March imports are also expected to lean favorably across every product except fluid milk, infant formula and lactose, pending any port processing delays," said HGD.
The Daily Dairy Report says China's data was "better than expected given the height of the China's Covid-19 epidemic hit in these months."
The COVID-19 has surely plunged the world into perplexity and uncertainty, but dairy has been deemed "critical infrastructure" by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Hoards Dairyman managing editor Corey Geiger addressed two of the concerns for dairy in the March 30 "Dairy Radio Now" broadcast.
He started with worry over dairy processing plants closing down due to employees contracting the virus and in turn lead to milk backing up on the farm and dumped. Geiger assured listeners that the nation's food processing plants, including dairy facilities, have steps in place to protect food safety. "These procedures are the very reason America's food supply is the safest in the world," he said.
Plants are disinfected and sanitized against COVID-19, according to Geiger, although he admits that, if a plant had numerous employees out sick, productivity could be impacted.
On a brighter note, Geiger pointed out that milk is flying off the shelves at grocery stores, as people are eating at home, but says milk's vitamin D supplementation "reduces the risk of respiratory infection, regulates cytokine production, and can limit the risk of other viruses such as influenza," according to Tom Frieden, former director of the U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention and the former commissioner of the New York City Health Department.
"If children are drinking their milk, they are not vitamin D deficient," Geiger stated. However, about 40 percent of Americans are deficient in vitamin D and, "While we don't know if vitamin D deficiency plays a role in the severity of COVID-19, given the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in this country, it is safe to recommend that people get the proper daily dosage of vitamin D," according to Frieden.
One final note of export news: the U.S. Dairy Export Council says it is "utilizing technology to stay connected and productive as the coronavirus crisis disrupts day-to-day life in countries around the world."
"Utilizing smartphones, laptops, web-based video conferencing, chat-based collaboration tools and high-speed Internet connections, USDEC staffers have been productive working from their homes," according to USDEC's website.
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