According to the WSJ, China has set its sights on becoming a dominant milk producer and will import as many as 100,000 cows from Uruguay, Australia and New Zealand this year.
Unlike raw materials, livestock self-reproduce and this could mean a large portion of milk and dairy export industry in those countries is selling itself out:
Some farmers in countries that are exporting their prized heifers worry that in coming years China could go from customer to rival in the global milk market. “It’s building the herds of our competitors,” says Nick Renyard, owner of a 550-head dairy in Victoria State, Australia. “It’s like selling the family silver, you can only do it once.”
Warning: the article mixes numerous references to bovine semen (quite a hot commodity!) with dairy products in a stomach-turning sequence.
