Australian dairy leaders visit Japan amid US trade uncertainty

Australian dairy leaders are hopeful of expanding the Japanese market, following a topsy-turvy time for trade. Here’s why.

Doubling down on dessert will be key to Australian dairy’s renewed push into the Japanese market, industry leaders say.

Dairy Australia managing director David Nation and Australian Dairy Farmers president Ben Bennett took part in a cross-commodity trip to Tokyo to strengthen trading links amid concerns over the US’s tariff isolationism and China’s faltering economy.

Alongside Mr Nation and Mr Bennett, representatives from Hort Innovation, Wine Australia, Meat and Livestock Australia as well as Seafood Industry Australia also formed part of the Japanese delegation last week.

“From a dairy farmer perspective, this has been an opportunity to get the best trading environment to operate in,” Mr Nation told The Weekly Times.

“There’s tariffs and quotas at the moment where Australia is not on an equal playing field with other dairy exports coming from Europe and North America, so it’s very timely to have these discussions to say we want to have a stronger partnership with Japan.

“Tariffs and quotas are incredibly complex into Japan for Australian dairy – for instance, specific cheese varieties have different tariffs applied to them.

“Cheese is our big export product to Japan, cream cheese is most important to Australia-Japan dairy trade, given the huge market for cream-cheese based dessert.”

Mr Nation said DA’s international trade senior manager Catherine Taylor had strong links to Japan, having previously served as the Australia’s senior trade commissioner as well as Consul General to Osaka.

About 26 per cent of all exported Australian dairy went to China last financial year, equating to 185,646 tonnes with a value of more than $A1 billion.

Japan was the silver medallist on the export league table with 71,687 tonnes to the value of $A477m while Singapore was bronze medallist in volume at 65,052 tonnes but further behind in value at $A199m.

Mr Bennett said Japan presented a strong market for growth, given the changing trading relationships with both China and the US.

“We’ve performed well with Japanese trade over the years but there’s opportunities there to do better and expand,” the southwest Victorian farmer said.