How Far Is China’s Slowdown Spreading? Ask a Dairy Farmer 6,000 Miles Away
OTOROHANGA, New Zealand—As the sunrise cast a pink glow around 6:30 a.m., Michael and Susie Woodward worked together to attach suction cups to the udders of dozens of cows in the milking shed of their New Zealand dairy farm. When a tanker arrived to take the milk to a processor, Michael Woodward calculated the day’s earnings—and figured he and his wife would lose about $25 on the shipment. “I try not to think about it, to be honest," Michael Woodward, 43 years old, said as nearly 1,400 gallons of unprofitable milk was transferred from a storage vat to the truck.
“If you dwelled on it, you wouldn’t be in a good space." Their troubles show the global impact of a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy this year. China has been struggling to revive growth after an initial bounce from its Covid-19 reopening fizzled, as consumers who initially spent on traveling and dining out curtailed spending. Its prolonged real-estate downturn has hit demand for iron ore, copper and other commodities, pressuring global prices and sapping export earnings for major producers in Latin America and Australia.
The value of China’s imports, including consumer products, fell 6.2% in September compared with the same month last year. Everything from cosmetics to cars to dairy has taken a hit. In New Zealand, the world’s biggest dairy exporter, farmers are now feeling the pain.
As is the case with other countries, New Zealand’s economy has become more intertwined with China’s because of the country’s heft and strong growth in recent decades. To meet demand from its expanding middle class, China imports billions of dollars of dairy products each year, with New Zealand sending more than 30% of its dairy exports by value there. But Chinese
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