German exports stable and grow to Asia
German foreign trade figures for the first half of 2019 show a stable picture for the export of dairy products from Germany.The positive balance of exports of milk and cream in small packages from Germany is characterised by the enormously high imports to China in the first half of the year (+64%) to a record-breaking 128,800 tons. The Philippines also increased imports by almost 70% to 11,700 tons, so that in total German exports of drinking milk and cream to third countries increased by 36%.
By contrast, exports to neighbouring European countries fell by 9%. Significant declines can be seen in EU countries with designation of origin, such as France.
Cheese exports are only slightly above the previous year’s level at 0.6%, with key markets such as the US, Chile, Japan and South Korea showing a weaker trend.
The fall (-2.8%) in cheese exports to third countries was offset by higher exports within Europe (+1%) to Poland, Belgium and Ukraine.
Exports of skimmed milk powder within Europe declined by around 9%. with the end of the removal of intervention goods. By contrast, exports of skimmed milk powder to Asian countries increased by more than 18% to nearly 61,100 tons.
Noteworthy here are the increase for China (19,100 tons, up 85%), Indonesia (7,100 tons, an increase of 93%) as well as the exported skimmed milk powder to the African quota amount to Egypt of about 13,000 tons.
With regard to the EU, Germany was able to benefit from the positive development of export volumes in the first half of the year in the area of skimmed milk powder, even though growth rates have become smaller over the course of the year.
In total, EU exports amounted to more than 514,500 tons in the first half of the year and it is quite likely that EU exports will exceed 900,000 tons for the first time this year.
A so far rather small segment in third country exports are yogurt products, with and without additives. However, in the first half of the year, there was a considerable increase. About 10% of the total exports of consignments went to third countries in this segment.
Exports rose to 7,200 tons (+86%) for natural yogurt and 22,700 tons (+6.5%) for yogurt with additives. Imports in China account for around half of the respective third country quantities.
Butter exports have strengthened in recent months due to weaker prices, but are still down 7% on the previous year.
Overall, exports of whey powder fell by 5.7%, with exports to the Netherlands falling by more than 18,000 tons. Third-party exports, on the other hand, increased by 14.5% to 47,300 tons, with China and Indonesia in particular seeing more demand.
From the export figures of the first half of the year it can be seen that the German and European dairy industry could well benefit from the trade dispute between the US and China. But it also shows that competition from other attractive export destinations is increasing.
The German exporters of dairy products are therefore required to further target their markets and also rely on the support of policy in the development of new markets.
