Dairy, Meat and Forestry Hit Hard in 2023 Reveals Master Briefing To Winston Peters
The State of NZ-China Relations And Future Trajectory: master briefing for Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and other documents. What do they say about our number one trading relationship?
In the lead up to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to these shores on March 18, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs produced a master brief for the eyes of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Winston Peters.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Winston Peters (source: Newshub)
Wang Yi, China’s Foreign Minister (Source: Newsweek)
At stake during the visit was New Zealand’s number one export market and trading relationship.
According to the master briefing, $20.67 billion worth of goods and services had been exported to China in 2023. It also showed that the country’s earnings from goods exports had dropped for the first time since 2020 by 8% to $18.425 or $18.43 billion.
Source: MFAT Master Brief for Deputy Prime Minister, Winston Peters
Dairy, meat and forestry had all been hit hard in 2023. Meat exports were down 18% to $3.1 billion on 2022’s figures and forestry had reduced by 7% to hit $3 billion.
Dairy was down to $6.1 billion (an 8.6 to 9 percent drop). [note: MFAT have possibly rounded this and other data]
MFAT attributed this decline in demand to “a slower growth in domestic consumption and strong domestic production.”
“New Zealand dairy companies and their import partners are having success in swapping volume for higher value products.
On the other hand, infant formula exports had seemingly grown by 12% to $1.2 billion to the end of 2023. “On 1 January 2024 all remaining tariffs on milk powders were removed by China under the bilateral FTA,” wrote MFAT.
This ought to have been good news for infant formula producer Synlait. Earlier this month, shareholders had approved $130-million bailout from the company’s largest shareholder Chinese company Bright Dairy.
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