Daily, we hear the expression "fake news", with the problem being boosted by a plethora of online media outlets desperate in a race of one-upmanship. Currently, it is agriculture that is being headlined - particularly on social media - with outlandish claims. It has been widely touted that Australian consumers will be drinking milk from China if farmers are not paid more. These simplistic statements have been endorsed by members of parliament ranging from Pauline Hanson to a NSW rural member. The convenient fact that Chinese consumers are desperate to buy Australian baby formula due to local contamination has been shoved aside. In 2008, China experienced a significant food safety incident in which milk and infant formula were adulterated with melamine. Of about 300,000 victims in China, six babies died from kidney stones and other kidney damage and some 54,000 babies were hospitalised. This came four years after another incident in which diluted milk led to 12 infant deaths from malnutrition. This is why greater China (including Hong Kong and Macau) is Australia's largest market, accounting for 30 per cent of exports by volume. Currently, Australia exports 30-40 per cent of production every year, despite the effects of drought, low prices and increased domestic consumption. Of our total exports, 85 per cent is sold to Asia. With better seasons and abundant irrigation allocations, just watch the dairy industry turn on the tap with lower costs of production. If long-term returns lift, savvy investors will throw money at dairy farming.
FAKE NEWS: China continues to be one of our major export markets.
Daily, we hear the expression "fake news", with the problem being boosted by a plethora of online media outlets desperate in a race of one-upmanship.
Currently, it is agriculture that is being headlined - particularly on social media - with outlandish claims.
It has been widely touted that Australian consumers will be drinking milk from China if farmers are not paid more. These simplistic statements have been endorsed by members of parliament ranging from Pauline Hanson to a NSW rural member.
The convenient fact that Chinese consumers are desperate to buy Australian baby formula due to local contamination has been shoved aside. In 2008, China experienced a significant food safety incident in which milk and infant formula were adulterated with melamine.
Of about 300,000 victims in China, six babies died from kidney stones and other kidney damage and some 54,000 babies were hospitalised. This came four years after another incident in which diluted milk led to 12 infant deaths from malnutrition.
This is why greater China (including Hong Kong and Macau) is Australia's largest market, accounting for 30 per cent of exports by volume.
Currently, Australia exports 30-40 per cent of production every year, despite the effects of drought, low prices and increased domestic consumption.
Of our total exports, 85 per cent is sold to Asia.
With better seasons and abundant irrigation allocations, just watch the dairy industry turn on the tap with lower costs of production. If long-term returns lift, savvy investors will throw money at dairy farming.
