Markets in South East Asia and Australian Diary

The Victorian dairy market is significantly focused on the export market. The export products include a wide and diverse variety of dairy items. Some of them include powdered milk and cream, yoghurt and buttermilk, butter, fats, oils, cheese, whey products, and live animals. Moreover, there are various uses of milk found in Victoria. For instance, nine per cent of the total production is used in drinking milk. Moreover, fifty per cent is saved for manufacturing in domestic markets and 41% is reserved for the export ones.

Export Market Focus

• Over 40 per cent of Victorian milk is manufactured into dairy products for the export market.
• Australia’s top three export regions, by value, are Japan, China and Indonesia. Asian regions account for 80 per cent of the value of all dairy exports. Outside of Asia, other large exports areas include New Zealand, the United States, and the Middle East.
• Victoria exported $1.9 billion of dairy products in 2015-16, with cheese and milk powder products the main export commodities.

Dairy is one of Australia’s most important rural market, producing about 8.8 billion litres of milk in 2018-19 and directly employing approximately 46,200 people. It is the fourth-largest rural industry in Australia generating $4.4 billion in farm gate value in 2018-19. The majority of milk production occurs on the southeast seaboard in Victoria, New South Wales, and Tasmania. Milk producers in Australia must pay a Dairy Services Levy based on milk production. This levy provides funding for the dairy industry services body, Dairy Australia, and is invested in research and development and industry services with the aim of increasing farm productivity, maintaining and developing value-added markets and products, and promoting the industry.