GLOBAL DAIRY MARKET ON THE WAY TO RECOVERY

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 15 (Bernama) -– Solid fundamentals will support global
dairy price recovery through 2013 as the industry emerges from the global
financial crisis, says Rabobank International.

In its latest Global Dairy Report, the world’s leading food and agribusiness
bank said while the industry has been dented by the financial crisis
effectively losing a year of demand growth, the fundamentals remain solid.

“As per-capita income once more begins to increase in the coming years,
global dairy demand is expected to rise steadily,” said Rabobank senior analyst
and co-author of the report, Tim Hunt.

In Asia, the dairy market has shown significant signs of recovery as it
entered the closing months of 2009.

For example, cheap import prices and consumer shifts to safer, imported
dairy products boosted China’s dairy import by 160 per cent for milk powder
in the third quarter of this year.

While China stood out among other importers, buying was reported to have
picked up across a range of import regions, including parts of South East Asia,
the Middle East and North Africa.

-- BERNAMA