NEW ZEALAND BUSINESS NEWS
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The Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand (DCANZ) has published a roadmap outlining what it wants the next government to do on trade, infrastructure, energy, food regulation, and biosecurity, arguing that the sector can deliver another step-change in export earnings if policy settings keep pace.
In a statement releasing the document, DCANZ chair Guy Roper said dairy already earns more than one in every three dollars from New Zealand goods trade, contributes $10.7 billion directly to GDP, supports 51,800 jobs and pays $4 billion in wages.
The association’s members process 98% of the milk produced in New Zealand and account for a similarly high share of dairy exports.
DCANZ points to export earnings rising from $13.4 billion in 2015 to $28.3 billion in 2025, a compound annual growth rate of 7.8%, achieved while annual milk supply grew only about 0.2%.
Roper said that the record shows the sector’s output value can keep climbing without more milk. “If good policy enables dairy to sustain that rate of value growth, New Zealand will be better able to fund the health, education and transport systems we all aspire to,” he said.
The association frames its five priorities as the conditions needed to repeat that performance: a more ambitious trade agenda, long-term infrastructure investment, internationally competitive energy, science-based food regulation and a well-funded biosecurity system.
The roadmap puts numbers on what the sector says it is losing. In 2025, $8 billion of dairy exports were either outside free trade agreement coverage or still subject to tariffs and quotas. Applied tariffs cost an estimated $726 million a year, or $2 million a day.
Some 43% of global dairy consumption falls outside New Zealand’s FTA coverage, while partners already covered by agreements that represent another 45% still impose tariffs and quotas on dairy exports. Compliance costs from non-tariff measures are estimated to exceed 28% of export value.
Roper said New Zealand cannot afford a passive trade policy. He wants the government formed after 7 November to urgently enforce trade rules, including by initiating action on Canada’s milk pricing subsidies, and to improve access through reviews of existing agreements and accession processes involving the EU, India and CPTPP partners. DCANZ also names Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Egypt as candidates for new agreements, and wants work advanced on subsidy distortions and non-tariff barriers.
On the domestic side, DCANZ is seeking cross-party agreement on long-term investment in ports, roads, rail, freight and grid capacity, faster consenting for nationally significant projects, and a managed energy transition that delivers abundant, reliable and affordable supply.
Roper linked those settings directly to export performance. “The next government must also recognise that export growth is built at home. It depends on resilient roads, rail and ports, and on secure, internationally competitive energy,” he said. He noted the sector transforms 22 billion kilograms of perishable milk into products sold internationally.
On food regulation, DCANZ wants the Animal Products Act kept proportionate to risk, duplication reduced, new technologies enabled, and New Zealand’s outcome-equivalent regulatory system promoted offshore. It also calls for biosecurity funding that minimises impacts and protects trade continuity, including enduring readiness for foot-and-mouth disease and risk-based border settings.
The roadmap extends to food and nutrition policy. DCANZ wants dietary guidance and labelling rules to reflect current science on nutrient density, protein quality, and the dairy food matrix; regular national nutrition surveys; and changes to Health Star Ratings for cheese so they recognise its contribution to healthy diets.
It also wants New Zealand to adopt the longstanding international Codex standard on the use of dairy terms, with plant-based alternatives using distinct categories and names and truth-in-labelling rules enforced.
“Dairy has delivered for New Zealand through a difficult period and can deliver much more,” Roper said. “The policy choices made now will determine whether New Zealand captures that value, strengthens regional economies and generates the export earnings needed to support better public services and infrastructure.”
For dairy processors and exporters, the roadmap sets out where the association believes the largest gains are available: tariff and quota relief in existing and new markets, lower compliance costs from non-tariff measures, and faster consenting for the transport and energy projects that underpin processing and shipping.
Firms elsewhere in the supply chain have a stake in the same settings. Road, rail, port, and grid investments affect freight costs and reliability for any exporter handling perishable goods, and the biosecurity and food regulation proposals would apply across the food and beverage sector.
DCANZ is asking the next government to act with urgency and ambition, backed by long-term cross-party commitment to export success.
Source: Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand
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