Economics

Milk Output Expansion Poised to Spur 5-Year World Surplus

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A record payout to New Zealand dairy farmers last year is setting the stage for a global milk glut that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. predicts will last half a decade.

The world’s top exporter will expand production to an all-time high, the government predicts, after a 2013 surge in prices led to investment in more cows and nutritional supplements that boost milk flow, just as pastures recovered from a drought. Annual global dairy output will exceed demand by 2 billion liters through 2018, Goldman said in a report last month. That’s enough to fill 800 Olympic-size swimming pools.