Australia's agricultural sector will benefit from the Australia-China free-trade agreement, with dairy and almonds among the beneficiaries

Australia's agricultural sector will benefit from the Australia-China free-trade agreement, with dairy and almonds among the beneficiaries. Senior Industrials Analyst, Mark Topy, highlights that historically these type of agreements can deliver over time, though incrementally. As such, we should value the benefits of the agreement with some conservatism, and on a case-by-case basis. For example, in the dairy products space, milk powder's tariff will take 11 years to wind back to zero, cheese will take nine years, and infant formula will take four years. These will ultimately bring us onto the same base as NZ, currently the largest exporter of dairy products to China. Outside of the dairy industry, the tariff on almonds falls from 20% to zero over four years. These should all benefit valuations, though not dramatically in the short-term. Mark's recent research on Almond producer Select Harvest (SHV) is here: (VIEW LINK)