Whether a milk is 'good' or not is decided by consumers themselves by evaluating its quality and cost. Milk has no nationality. It's just milk.

By way of example is a project under construction which is now about to start production in Uruguay. It involves a huge dairy farm with 26 stables each measuring 200 by 31 meters, which will milk 12,000 cows twice a day, after the animals have been fed on fodder grown on 26,000 surrounding hectares. The animals do not leave their cubicle in a closed production cycle which includes the sale of electricity in biodigesters. The project is supported by a 20-year contract to supply milk powder to the government of India.  The investor is Argentine, the cows and staff are Uruguayans, and as we saw, the consumers of the product will be Indian. Productive globalization by function.

Meanwhile, Central America seems to trying to make itself even poorer, with public and government institutions serving the interests of the dominant companies in the respective sectors, with decisions that obstruct free trade, restricting free competition which is what results in better goods with lower costs for the consumer. And in the case of the title, we are not talking about luxury items, but a staple product, which is vital for feeding humans.

See: "Dairy War Between Nicaragua and Costa Rica?" and "Sanitation Controls and the Nicaragua-Costa Rica Dairy Conflict"

National markets currently exist only in the minds of populist leaders and public officials whose concepts of the economy are modelled on the early twentieth century, absolutely unsuitable for application in the tiny intra-border markets of Central America. Not even the entire isthmus with its almost 50 million inhabitants can be considered a functioning market for modern forms of production.

Read: "Removing Barriers to Regional Trade"

More on this topic

Dairy products: Regional Trade Figures

December 2018

In the first half of the year, trade in milk and dairy products between Central American countries totaled $151 million, and more than 40% was bought by companies in El Salvador.

Figures from the information system on the Milk and Dairy Market in Central America complied by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Click to interact with graphic"]

Central America: Record Figures in Milk and Dairy Trade

May 2018

In 2017, trade in milk and dairy products among countries in the region amounted to $306 million, 2% more than what was sold in 2016, and the highest value in the last six years.

Figures from the Information System on the Milk and Milk Products Market in Central America, compiled by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption = "Click to interact with graph"]

Central American Trade in Milk and Dairy Up 4%

May 2017

In 2016, the value of trade in milk and milk products among the countries in the region amounted to $299 million, 4% more than that was sold in 2015.

Figures from the information system on the Central American Market for Milk and Dairy Products, compiled by the Business Intelligence Unit at CentralAmericaData: [GRAFICA caption="Clic para interactuar con la gráfica"]

Milk Supply Increases in Central America

December 2014

The main dairy producers and exporters in the region are preparing for the beggining of operations in Nicaragua by the Mexican dairy plant Lala.

It is expected that by early 2015 the plant owned by the company Lala will start operating in Nicaragua, meaning that "... Competition for the Central American market over milk and its derivatives will be more intense. "