Germany’s export surge

With demand for dairy products in Germany stagnating (not helped by the population reducing by around 200,000 in the past year) the country’s milk sector is increasingly dependent on exports, reports the Central Milk Market Reporting Agency (ZMB) in Berlin. With production at 29.7 million tonnes in 2011, 45% of German milk and its products were exported. For instance cheese exports for the first eight months of 2012, as reported by the ZMB, rose by 16% on the year and shipments of skimmed milk powder have so far increased by 24%.

As always, main customers for German cheeses are within the EU with a good 50% of the 2.13 million tonnes of cheese produced exported and 40% of that ends up in Italian, French and Dutch retail outlets.

Although representing a tiny market for dairy products so far, Russia is now promoted by market information offices such as ZMB as crucial to further growth in the dairy sector of Germany (as well as that of other major dairy production lands). Last year the country imported 1% of its milk and milk product requirements from Germany (approx. 83,000 tonnes). About 80% of this featured cheese, making Germany the second most important exporter of cheese to Russia after Belarus. Another small, but promising, emergent market for German dairies is China, with its total drinking milk imports of 55,000 tonnes in the last year. Germany is one of China’s top three suppliers along with New Zealand and Australia.