Aussie Cheese Exporters Benefit from ChAFTA Boost
A little over a year after its implementation, ChAFTA’s benefits are already widely perceived in the food and beverage industry, withAustralian beekeepers or cherry producers seeing increased demand for their products in China. Under the agreement, cheese exports have also recently experienced a significant growth, with Australia’s market-share gain surpassing that of the United States reports The Australian.
While New Zealand controls about half of China’s $348 million-imported cheese market, Australia held 18% of the market in terms of value in 2015. Following the adoption of ChAFTA, this figure rose by almost 1 percentage point, helped by a reduction of China’s taxes on cheese imports from 12% to 9.6%.
With Chinese middle-class consumers’ increasing demand for Western dairy products and preferential tax rates, Australian cheese producers are poised to see even greater profits from their Chinese exports in coming months.
