Austria reports positive outlook
“Foreign trade for the Austrian dairy industry in 2017 showed a pleasing development. Particularly towards the end of the year, exports of Austrian dairy products could be significantly increased,” according to the president of the Association of Austrian milk processors (VÖM) Helmut Petschar.
Statistik Austria’s preliminary figures for the dairy sector for 2017 show exports of €1.18 billion (+4.7%) and imports of €781 million (+8.6%), which represents a positive export balance €402m for the year as a whole (-2.1%).
A quarterly analysis shows that, especially towards the end of the year, a significant improvement has taken place, as the last quarter showed an improvement in the foreign trade balance of +11%.
The Austrian dairy industry’s main foreign trade product is cheese, with 142,000 tons exported for €576m at an average price of €4.07 per kg, while 113,000 tons were imported for €447m (average price €3.97 per kg).
The second most important product category is liquid milk and dairy products. Here, exports generated €305m, while €82m was spent on imports.
Foreign trade in whey products resulted in exports of € 97m and imports of € 48m.
The most important foreign trade partner for Austria is Germany, where goods amounting to €604m (51% of total exports) were exported, while imports amounted to €477m (61% of total imports). The second most important trading partner is Italy with exports of €223m (19% of total exports) and imports of €77m (10% of total imports). The Central and Eastern European countries had exports of €91m and imports of €34m.
Approximately 90% of exports were with EU countries and about 10% with third countries, of which the most important were Australia, China and Switzerland. In total, dairy products were exported to 101 countries.
