The one potential saviour for the dairies and global milk prices is China. Dairy imports to China in 2022 were really strong so at the moment they are sitting on high levels of stock and demand is slow. There was also political and social unrest in China due to the prolonged covid lockdowns with the government persisting with their ‘zero covid’ policy.
The outlook has now changed due to the government backtracking after civilian protests threatened the economy. The policies were so extreme that citizens were immediately forced into mandatory quarantine camps if they were in close contact to positive cases. The government have now moved away from this extreme policy and citizens are now permitted to isolate at home. This is the clearest sign yet that China is prepared to live with the virus like the rest of the world and this could potentially lead to a post covid bounce to the economy.
