The resilience and continuity these trade frameworks offer are more critical than ever, ensuring fluid supply chains for major exporters. Supporting this momentum are robust structural trends across the region: rising incomes, increasing urbanization, a burgeoning middle class, and the growing integration of dairy products into both traditional and modern diets. The rapid expansion of Western-style dining, with its demand for dairy-rich ingredients, is particularly fueling retail and food service growth. New Zealand’s exports to ASEAN reached approximately $2.8 billion in 2024, with seven of Fonterra’s top 15 global markets located within this vibrant region, highlighting its immense economic weight for dairy economics. Vietnam, notably, stands out as a priority market, offering both surging demand for high-quality dairy nutrition and potential contributions to regional supply chains.

Despite comprehensive free trade agreements, Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) continue to pose significant operational challenges for dairy exporters. One pervasive issue is the persistence of complex or duplicative administrative procedures. These hurdles can affect various stages, from customs clearance and product/factory registration to pre-shipment inspections and in-country audits. Often, multiple government agencies are involved, leading to overlapping responsibilities and confusion for exporters navigating the intricate landscape of dairy trade.

Further complicating the trade environment are non-transparent import licensing processes, which may involve unclear application requirements or licenses tied to unrelated conditions, such as commitments to support local dairy industries. While this is not the case in Vietnam, inconsistent application of rules by government agencies is another recurring challenge, leading to variable interpretations for the same shipment across different ports of entry. Additionally, unclear or overly broad regulations, particularly concerning labeling requirements, often lead to confusion when retail standards are unnecessarily applied to bulk or intermediary ingredients in manufacturing, increasing compliance burdens for business-to-business products.