Industry leaders push for FTA

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SENIOR executives in the Chinese dairy industry have urged the Chinese and Australian governments to urgently conclude a free trade deal between the two countries to capitalise on soaring demand for milk powder and other dairy products.

Speaking during a visit to Melbourne as part of Dairy Australia’s Greater China Scholarship program, an executive at Yili — China’s largest dairy manufacturer — said a free trade agreement between both countries would “drive volume growth in China and benefit many people’’.

Honghui Yang, Yili’s senior cheese purchasing manager, said Yili also would consider potential acquisitions in Australia after 18 months ago spending $214 million to build an infant formula plant in New Zealand as part of the acquisition of the Oceania Dairy Group.

“Yili Group have invested in a milk powder company in New Zealand so maybe there is a similar opportunity in Australia in the future,’’ he told The Australian.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the G20 meeting in Brisbane in November where officials are hopeful an FTA could be signed.

Tony Abbott has charged Trade Minister Andrew Robb with completing a deal by the end of this year. The Prime Minister has changed his previous opposition to Chinese state-owned businesses investing in Australia and signalled they would be offered the same conditions as South Korean and Japanese companies following trade agreements with those countries.

Zhiyong Wang, Bright Dairy’s East China Central Factory manager, said an FTA was “very ­important’’.

“If we get the agreement with Australia, it will be very beneficial for our business overall and for business overall,” he said.

Sam Yang, director of operations at the Qingdao Maigao Dairy — which is owned by Australian dairy giant Murray Goulburn and is its first infant milk factory in China — said the Chinese market for infant milk powder was growing very fast.

“We can grow around 30 per cent in the next year,’’ he said.

“Your government has not signed a trade deal yet. We hope you can sign it as soon as possible and get the lower price and high value. Right now, if there is something happening in China, like with Fonterra last year where some company’s products have some issues, that is a good opportunity for Australia,’’ he said referring to the New Zealand dairy giant’s contamination scandal.

Patrick Chu, associate scientist, Bioscience Centre, at Uni-President Enterprises Corporation, the largest processed food producer in Taiwan, said while his main dairy products were imported from New Zealand, he wanted to use more Australian product.

Delegates on the Dairy Australia scholarship have visited ­Murray Goulburn, Bega, Warrnambool Cheese & Butter, Longwarry and Burra during the past 10 days and held meetings with Lion, Parmalat, Fonterra Australia, Bulla, ADP and Pactum Dairy.

Today in Sydney they will meet Norco, which is exporting some volumes of fresh milk directly into Shanghai.

Source: The Australian

Mirá También

Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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