April 22, 2004

Australia Dairy Industry In Bid to Increase Live China Exports
 
The New South Wales dairy industry hopes to earn up to $20 million a year through increasing live exports to China.
 
The state has not been able to benefit from the trade because of Chinese concerns over the deadly disease, Blue Tongue.
 
But after a recent trade mission, dairy industry representatives are hopeful they had been able to convince Chinese authorities that the state is free of the disease.
 
New South Wales Farmers Association Dairy Committee chairman Arthur Burns says only 40,000 cattle were exported to China from Australia last year, and that figure is well below demand.
 
"We had quite a deal of success.
 
"It's not a done deal yet. But if their growth in consumption increases, you know they will never ever be able to be self-sufficient, and there's certainly some opportunity.
 
"I'd hope some of our commercial people would look at it."
 
Furthermore, a Chinese dairy company is undergoing final talks to build a multi-million dollar factory in northeast Victoria, producing powdered milk for export.
 
The YOSICA dairy group estimates that the factory would need up to 100 million litres of milk, and thus would support around 100 suppliers.
 
Ray Park, chief executive officer of the local Towong Shire, says the proposal is a welcome one.
 
"One of the things that we've in our economic development plan is to try and get value adding industries into this part of the world. This is better than seeing the raw product shipped out and processed, and the jobs being created elsewhere.
 
"We want and try and get those back into this part of the world, and this opportunity is exactly the sort of thing that we're looking for."