Japanese Market For Dairy Products

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30535, 2 September 1964, Page 16

Japanese Market For Dairy Products

Japan’s consumption of dairy products was until recently insignificant. Its consumption of butter in 1962 was only 19,000 tons, compared with New Zealand’s 48,000 tons; per capita consumption in New Zealand was nearly 100 times that of Japan. It would be a mistake, however, to discount Japan’s potentialities as a market for dairy produce. The consumption of butter in Japan doubled in the five years to 1962, cheese consumption trebled, milk powder consumption nearly doubled; consumption of condensed and evaporated milk rose nearly a third and use of casein doubled. These increases were probably not matched anywhere else in the world in that period. They are symptomatic both of the rise in real wealth of Japan and of the nation’s increasing adoption of western ways of life. They suggest that New Zealand, as the world’s largest exporter of dairy products, will need to pay increasing attention to this market. It is encouraging, therefore, to read that the chairman of the New Zealand Dairy Production and Marketing Board (Sir Andrew Linton) and the board’s general manager (Mr P. B. Marshall) consider there is “every possibility of increasing New Zealand's dairy trade” with Japan. At the end of a 10-day visit to Japan, Sir Andrew Linton said the growth of this trade was affected by quantitative restrictions and tariffs, but he hoped that increased demand and the limited local production would lead to a more liberal import policy. In this, of course, a more liberal New Zealand policy toward imports of manufactures from Japan would be helpful.