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Japan announces pullback in dairy imports
The U.S. Foreign Ag Service says Japan has announced it expects to cut butter imports by more than half this year while maintaining nonfat dry milk imports.
The FAS office says the country is forecasting dairy product imports at more than 137,000 metric tons, the lowest in nearly eight years.
Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture says the reduction is in response to reduced fluid milk demand during the coronavirus pandemic which pushed excess volumes into processing channels. Butter stocks in Japan are nearly double 2019 levels while nonfat dry milk stocks are up nearly 30 percent.
Japan was the fifth largest U.S. dairy export market in 2019.
