Milch Cockpit, 14.09.2018

(AMI) - Global dairy trade continued to grow in the first half of 2018. Measured in terms of exports to the world market of the ten largest suppliers worldwide, the export volume rose by around 3% in milk equivalent compared with the same period of the previous year. The strongest growth was registered, with a plus of 10%, skimmed milk powder. But butter also clearly exceeded the previous year's level. In addition, there was also growth in the trade in whey powder, while cheese and condensed milk recorded an overall decline in export volumes. Growth markets in North Africa and Asia In the individual product groups, the most important customers in the first six months of the current year mostly imported more goods than in the previous year, sometimes even significantly.North Africa, the Near and Middle East and Asia continued to be growth markets. For skimmed milk powder, there was a strong increase in demand from Mexico and Algeria in the first half of 2018. According to current data, China, as the world's largest importer of dairy products, also introduced significantly more. China also saw an increase in imports of butter. This was also the case on the part of the USA, Australia and Egypt. By contrast, demand for butter from Russia has fallen significantly. However, Russia has increasingly imported goods for cheese. Japan, the largest importer of cheese by volume, has also expanded its demand compared to the previous year. There was less demand in the USA, South Korea and Australia. Whole milk powder trading was dampened by sharply lower demand from Brazil and Singapore.However, this was more than offset by increased imports from the largest buyers in China, Algeria and many other Asian countries.