World trade in dairy products grows more slowly

In their recently published joint projections on the future development of agricultural markets, the FAO and OECD have predicted slower growth in international trade in the key dairy products butter, cheese and milk powder for the decade up to 2022 than was the case in the first decade of this century. Only butter and butter products are expected to grow faster. In the case of butter, this is mainly due to the fact that Russia has significantly reduced its import requirements and therefore international trade hardly grew at all in the years up to 2010. In any case, butter is not the most important product in terms of volume. Whole milk powder and cheese are the most important. In the case of whole milk powder, it was the emergence of China after 2008 that led to the strongest increases in international trade and thus pushed up the average growth rates of the past decade. According to projections, international trade volumes will continue to grow in the ten years from 2013. China will also contribute to this growth, but will no longer be in first place. International trade in cheese will largely focus on business between countries with established markets, whereby the annual growth rate in the period up to 2008 was more pronounced than in the milk powder sector. The strongest growth is expected for skimmed milk powder in the ten years up to 2022.