China Aims to Increase the Competitiveness of Domestic Dairy Industry

China will take a series of measures to improve the competitiveness of local dairy industry, such as increasing the supply of premium fodder grass, enhancing the supervision level towards raw milk quality and safety, etc. Enterprises are encouraged to place more emphasis on cheese sector and upgrade corresponding processing technique and equipment.

Earlier in Feb. 2021, China Dairy Association held a meeting discussing the preparation work of drafting the “14th Five-Year Strategic Development Guidance of China Dairy Industry”. On Feb. 16, 2022, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs unveiled the Action Program of Enhancing Dairy Competitiveness during the 14th Five-Year Plan (hereinafter Action Program), which offers detailed strategies to promote the dairy industry development.

The purpose of this program is to further improve the competitiveness of domestic dairy industry, including that the dairy yield nationwide should hit approximately 41 million tons and the proportion of hundred-scale breeding should hit 75% by 2025.

Nine key measures will be taken to realize the goal, which are:

Optimize the regional distribution of milk sources
Improve the independent breeding capability
Increase the supply of premium fodder grass
Support the standardized and digitized scale breeding
Encourage the extension of industrial chain
Stabilize raw milk purchase and sale orderliness
Enhance the supervision level towards raw milk quality and safety
Encourage the development of dairy processing
Strengthen the dairy consumption popularization

The government encourages enterprises to develop and produce dairy products targeting at different consumption groups. In addition, enterprises are suggested to placing more emphases on cheese sector, as well as facilitating the processing technique and equipment upgrade. The utilization rate of by-products of cheese such as whey and protein concentrate should be further enhanced. Besides, manufacturers can take advantages of local features to develop products like cow milk, buffalo milk and yak milk. However, enterprises should avoid excessive package when designing products.

Popularization of dairy consumption is one of the key tasks of the Action Program. The competent authorities will popularize the benefits of consuming pasteurized milk, sterilized milk, fermented milk, and cheese to cultivate the local consumption habit.