BEIJING: China’s milk powder buying, one of the most important drivers of dairy values, will improve next year – but not by much, and to nowhere near 2013 and 2014 levels which sent markets soaring.
The US Department of Agriculture’s Beijing bureau, in its first forecast for Chinese whole milk powder imports in 2016, pegged than at 400,000 tonnes.
That would be above the level of this year, which it forecast at 350,000 tonnes – a downgrade of 50,000 tonnes on the USDA’s official estimate.
However, it would be well below levels which soared above 600,000 tonnes in both 2013 and 2014, helping lift dairy prices worldwide.
“The new import environment reflects a dramatic change from an import surge that occurred from October 2013 through May 2014,” the bureau said.
