New Zealand is milking fewer cows again, but exporting more

Cow Milk

Dairy

New Zealand

Market & Price Trends

Published Feb 13, 2024

Tridge summary

New Zealand's dairy herd is projected to shrink from 5.93 million to 5.83 million cows by 2023, continuing a downward trend from 2021's 6.19 million cows. Despite this, exports of dairy products like whole milk powder, skimmed milk powder, and cheese have risen, although liquid milk exports have dropped by 13.4% in 2023, largely due to reduced exports to China, the Philippines, and Taiwan. This decline in dairy cows may be linked to a warning from Fonterra CEO Miles Hurrel about a potential drop in milk prices in 2023/2024.

Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by a state-of-the-art LLM model and is intended for informational purposes only. It is recommended that readers refer to the original article for more context.

Original content

New Zealand's dairy herd will shrink again in 2023. From 5.93 million dairy cows to 5.83 million. In 2021 there were still 6.19 million. Most cows are slaughtered annually between March and June. During that period, 9.2 percent more animals were slaughtered in 2023 than in the same period a year earlier. Over the remaining months there was a decline of 6.4 percent. Despite there being fewer cows, New Zealand exports increased. Whole milk powder is the most important export product. Compared to 2022, 3.6 percent more whole milk powder was sold outside the country's borders in 2023. The share of China and Indonesia in exports decreased, while demand from Algeria and the United Arab Emirates increased, reports the German market information agency AMI. For skimmed milk powder, the percentage increase was even greater at 26.7. Almost all major buyers requested more skimmed milk powder in 2023 than in 2022. In the cumulative period from January to December, cheese recorded an export ...

Source: Nieuwe Oogst