And that will be the case even if tariffs and quotas are removed, he said.
Dairy and lamb make up almost 60% of NZ’s exports to Britain where there is concern a lowering of tariffs or removal of quotas could open the door to increased amounts.
But when he was asked if a liberalised trade regime in Britain would boost NZ dairy exports Richmond said “No, you would not see a flood of NZ dairy products coming to the UK.
“NZ is a large exporter of dairy products and 95% of what we produce is exported but in the world scale of milk production we are actually very small.
“We only produce about 2% of the world’s total milk.
“Our supply coming out of NZ now is likely to be heavily constrained so you wil not see the five, six, seven or 10% growth in milk coming out of NZ as you have seen historially.
“I would add the UK is a highly efficient dairy producer in its own right and the fifth largest dairy exporter in the world after the European Union 27, NZ, the United States and Australia.
“It is a strong competitor on the global market.”
Richmond also suggested other markets such as China and southeast Asia offer more of a return for NZ dairy products than the UK.
“We are incentivised to send our products to markets in he world where we get the best return.
“That is what our farmers pay us to do.
“If we were sending product into the UK below what we could get elsewhere then we would not be in our jobs.”
UK Farmers Guardian
