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The One Rule Making Dairy Trade Possible
Description
Episode 82 of Global Trade with Fexingo unpacks a single regulatory standard that underpins the entire international dairy trade: the Codex Alimentarius standard for milk fat and protein content. Lucas and Luna explain how this seemingly boring technical rule allows a glass of milk from New Zealand to be sold in Singapore, a French cheese to land in Tokyo, and a US dairy to export to Mexico — without every shipment being tested from scratch. They trace the history from the 1960s Codex negotiations, show how it reduces transaction costs by roughly 30 percent for exporters, and reveal the surprising losers: small-scale farmers who can't afford the equipment to meet the standard. Specific examples include Fonterra's global supply chain, the EU protected designation of origin system, and the ongoing fight over plant-based milks using 'milk' labels. A concrete deep dive into the plumbing of global food trade.