A Comparative Study of the Role of Australia and New Zealand in Sustainable Dairy Competition in the Chinese Market after the Dairy Safety Scandals

Abstract

After the melamine milk scandal in 2008, China’s global imports of dairy products soared, especially after FTAs had been established with Australia and New Zealand. The dairy products of the two countries have a unique competitive trading advantage in the Chinese market. However, at a time when Chinese consumers are increasingly dependent on imported dairy products, a succession of whey protein scandals affecting New Zealand’s dairy products in 2013 had a negative psychological impact on Chinese importers and consumers, and this even affected the import status of New Zealand dairy imports to the Chinese market. The present paper, based on the United Nations Comtrade Harmonized System, studies the role of Australia and New Zealand in China’s dairy market. It calculates the trade competitiveness index, revealing the relative competitive advantages of Australia and New Zealand, and investigates the impact of the dairy products from these countries on China’s imports from the rest of the world across six dairy sectors in the period 1992–2017. We find that, under the food safety laws, the relative dairy import prices, milk scandals, and Free Trade Agreements, together with the competitive advantages of Australia and New Zealand, had a varied impact on the corresponding Chinese dairy imports across the relevant sectors in the context of China food safety laws after the melamine milk scandal. These findings acknowledge Australia and New Zealand’s competitiveness in the international dairy trade, and also lead to suggestions regarding their competitiveness and sustainable development in the Chinese market.

Exploring Meal and Snacking Behaviour of Older Adults in Australia and China

“…This might be due to the low cheese consumption by older Chinese consumers. Furthermore, older Chinese preferred dry dairy products, including those from Australian origin [49], which is reflected in our findings.…”

Impact of Dairy Imports on Raw Milk Production Technology Progress in China

“…Therefore, the technological contents of liquid dairy products in New Zealand, Australia, and Germany have a significant positive spillover effect on the technological progress of China’s moderately large-scale raw milk production. Second, China signed free trade agreements with New Zealand and Australia and therefore, they have a closer relationship in dairy trade and dairy production technology exchanges [ 12 ]. The third reason is evidenced by reports in the China Dairy Industry Yearbook about Chinese dairy companies “going to sea” after the “melamine” incident, which put Chinese dairy companies in fierce competition with overseas milk sources.…”

“…Developing countries use “learning by doing” and other strategies to absorb advanced technologies contained in imported goods and accelerate the reduction of the technological gap between developing countries and developed countries [ 11 ]. New Zealand and Australia are among the developed regions of the world’s dairy industry, and their dairy farming technology, raw milk production efficiency, and dairy product processing technology occupy a leading position globally [ 12 ]. Jaforullah (1999) and MacDonald (2007) believe that the scale of dairy farming in New Zealand and the United States is gradually expanding, and that medium-scale and large-scale dairy farms will help reduce the cost of raw milk production, improve the overall production efficiency of the dairy industry, and increase operating income [ 13 , 14 ].…”

Food security and trade policies: evidence from the milk sector case study

“…New Zealand is China's top milk supplier covering about 42% of total China's imports in 2017. A significant reduction of New Zealand milk exports occurred in 2014-2015 after New Zealand's milk scandal of 2013 (Xu and Wu, 2018) and probably due to an increased global competition (in 2015, the EU milk quota were abolished and the China-Australia FTA entered into force). However, from 2016 New Zealand exports to China started recovering.…”