Some economists believe California dairies should pay extra attention to some specific regions of the world.
Some Regions Prime for Dairy Exports
Dairy production is forecast to grow in several areas of the United States, excluding California. Dairymen and women who are looking to expand and grow their operations are looking for places with a better profit margin than California. Bank of America national executive for food, agriculture and wine Cornelius Gallagher says other than finding value in the waste stream of dairy products, increasing an income for a California dairy looks to be challenging.
Gallagher says the industry might want to focus some of their attention on specific regions of the world however, as those areas have some favorable factors for export markets. Gallagher showed a map at a recent dairy conference that labeled the median age for countries around the world. Areas like Central Africa had median ages in the teens while areas like Japan had median ages well into the 50’s. Gallagher says the simple answer is that people in their teens will have babies and people in their 50’s probably won’t. He says the demand growth in the world, both for the amount of food they have and the amount of food they’ll need, will favor areas with lower median ages like Central Africa.