Sulling: Estonian dairy producers have signed their first contracts with a Japanese corporation

According to Anne Sulling, Minister of Foreign Trade and Enterpreneurship, Estonian dairy producers have signed their first contracts with Marubeni Corporation of Japan for the sale of Estonian skimmed milk powder and cheese. Estonian dairy producers have started production which complies with the requirements of the buyer and the first deliveries of powder will take place in March and cheese deliveries are expected before the summer. Additional contracts are expected in the spring and summer period.

„It is significant that Estonian dairy producers have managed to reach agreements on entering the Japanese market within some months as it can usually take years to enter new markets. As a first step, Marubeni has signed a contract with AS Tere for the delivery of skimmed milk powder and with AS E-Piim for the delivery of cheese. Also additional contracts are expected in the near future,“ said Anne Sulling, Minister of Foreign Trade and Enterpreneurship.

„Eventually the aim is to sell 5,000 tons of rennet cheese, which is 25% of the production, and 5,000 tons of skimmed milk powder and whey powder to Japan annually. Thus we would like to direct to the Japanese market the total volume of dairy products which was sent to Russia earlier,“ said Anne Sulling. „Marubeni is satisfied with the quality of Estonian dairy products and interested in long-term and continuing cooperation with Estonian dairy producers,“ added Sulling. She said that as Marubeni Corporation is operating in more than 65 countries, the Estonian dairy production may reach besides Japan also other markets that are new for Estonia.

Anne Sulling, Minister of Foreign Trade and Enterpreneurship, started negotiations with Marubeni Corporation in September 2014. The delegation from Marubeni visited Estonia for the first time in November last year and met all members of the Estonian Dairy Association here. The first sample quantities were sent to Japan in October. Minister Anne Sulling met with the representatives of Marubeni also during her visit to Japan in January this year.

According to Anne Sulling, Estonian dairy producers were able to start negotiations fast and achieve the first results due to the earlier cooperation of Estonia with Marubeni in CO2 quota trading. The transactions performed at that time made it possible to renovate more than a hundred public buildings in Estonia, eight theatres received up-to-date energy-efficient lighting solutions and five theatres new theatre buses. Among other buildings also the Estonian Dairy Museum at Imavere was renovated.

According to the information of the U.S. Department of Agriculture on 2014, Japan is the fifth most important global importer of dairy products (283 thous. tons) and the second most important cheese importer (247 thous. tons). 90,300 tons of drinking milk, 40,000 tons of cheese (incl. cheese spreads, processed cheese and cottage cheese), 26,200 tons of cream, 37,400 tons of fermented milk, 18,300 tons of curds, 5,500 tons of skimmed milk powder and 4,800 tons of butter were produced in Estonia in 2014. 202.3 thous. tons of the 750.2 thous. tons of crude milk were exported, mainly to Lithuania. In addition to crude milk, Estonian exported drinking milk, cheese and powders, the main destination countries were Lithuania, Latvia, Finland and Italy.