Chart Update, page-18145

Another article from last year,but fundamentaly,nothing has changed;

https://www.interest.co.nz/business...nny-says-tourism-seafood-and-export-education

excerpts;
On the high earning dairy sector and the judgement that its exposure risk is "low", Penny says this judgement is largely based on the fact that China is very dependent on New Zealand dairy imports.
"In 2019, New Zealand accounted for over half of China’s imports. In other words, China has very few other options available to fill its dairy production deficit. On top of this fact, dairy is a strategic food for China, with few direct substitutes."

Penny says China’s dietary guidelines advise for a daily intake of 300g of dairy, well beyond current per capita consumption levels.

"Notably, several Chinese agencies, including the Chinese Centre for Disease Control crafted guidelines aimed at lifting dairy consumption in a bid to lift public health and immunity levels amid the Covid outbreak. Also, China’s dairy industry is struggling to keep up with domestic consumption growth, meaning that imports will continue to play an oversized role in meeting dairy demand."
He says these struggles may be due to China’s competitive disadvantage in dairy. Anecdotally, production costs are in excess of NZ$10 per kg of milk solids compared to New Zealand’s average cost of circa NZ$6 per kg. More broadly from a protein perspective, China is a relatively efficient (low cost) producer of pork and chicken, and thus over the long term it is likely to focus its scarce agricultural resources (land and water) on production of these instead of dairy. Similarly, Chinese dairy production suffers from a poor reputation in terms of food safety and quality.
"The Chinese government is acutely aware of these facts and products like infant formula are often regarded as essential household items. Thus any disruptions to supply potentially could be a social and political flash point that Chinese officials will be keen to avoid."