Summary
The article published by Dairy Herd Management in October 2024 titled, “Latin America’s Dairy Exports Likely to Remain Regional for Now,” talks about the current state of dairy exports in Latin America. The news article talks about the region’s growing dairy production, with a main focus on the leading exporters in areas like Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. Despite recent success in exports of dairy products, the article highlights the current challenges that Latin America is dealing with, and preventing them from expanding further into global markets. These challenges are climate change, rising competition from other areas, and lastly recent political changes.
The article talks about how climate change creates major obstacles for Latin American dairy exports. The region’s dairy industry depends heavily on appropriate transportation routes to move milk and other dairy products from production areas to wherever they plan to export them. Climate change is a growing issue, particularly in Argentina and Brazil, shifts in weather conditions and increased temperate affect quality and quantity. These environmental factors lead to decreased dairy product production and also raise higher operational costs and prices. This in turn decreases profits for one side and increases profits for competitors.
Within Latin America, Argentina and Brazil are two of the leading dairy producers. Argentina and Brazil are both major players in the Latin America dairy market, but face competition from others like New Zealand, the United States, and Australia. With the increasing competition from other global dairy producers due to their technological advances, and their geological area this is a big problem for Latin American dairy exports which are dealing with problems already now have to deal with more on their plate. The competition from these countries is an issue due to pricing competitiveness, which causes problems for everyone. Dairy products from Latin America still struggle to compete with other locations, which have more effective production techniques, and lower costs. Even though Brazil and Argentina's production costs are already low it is hard to compete with countries that are much more wealthier than them.
Lastly, a problem that could arise in the near future, causing people to start panicking a little bit is the appointment of the previous president Donald Trump back into office. President Trump has talked several times about creating taxes and tariffs as a way to work and combat those who believe differently from the United States. President Trump has threatened to create 25% tariffs on Mexican imports into the United States, and if such problems aren’t resolved he has said that he will increase those tariffs from 25% to 100% (Howard. Fran). A similar situation where taxes were trying to be created was talked about in our Perusall readings. In the reading Analysis of Soluri, “Accounting for Taste” a duty created by the United States Finance Committee in 1913 was trying to be proposed and enforced on banana imports saying, “the fruit fit the definition of a “luxury good.” Once word broke out lots of people began to protest saying that the banana was considered the “poor man’s fruit”. Although the tax did not get passed it was part of a greater plan for the United States. The United States was looking for something to gain like profits and saw the banana imports and industry as a reasonable solution. This is the same kind of thinking now, President Trump’s desire to impose tariffs on Latin American countries was shaped by his larger economic and political goals, including trying to stop other countries from leaning away from the U.S. dollar’s currency and also working to stop the infiltration of illegal immigrants coming into the United States. If tariffs were imposed it was said that in retaliation tariffs would be placed back onto all U.S imports.
Works Cited:
Howard, Fran. “Latin America’s Dairy Exports Likely to Remain in the Region...for Now.” Dairy Herd, Dairy Herd, 27 Nov. 2024, www.dairyherd.com/news/exports/latin-americas-dairy-exports-likely-remain-region-now.