An Australian economist is warning New Zealand not to become too reliant on the dairy industry.
The Sydney Morning Herald's economic commentator Michael Pascoe said just like the iron ore industry in Australia, New Zealand's dairy export market was at risk of collapsing and New Zealand will have little to fall back on if that happened.
He said other countries - such as Uruguay, Russia and Australia - were competing for the lucrative Chinese market too.
"Yes there will be and is higher Chinese demand for higher value for, for higher protein food, but there's no shortage of places in the world that can produce it."
Mr Pascoe said New Zealand dairy farmers should be enjoying the boom at the moment, but should not be getting into too much debt.
