China Dairy Quality Report 2018

Quantity & Quality, Both on the Rise

In 2017, China’s dairy production (including raw cow milk, goat milk etc.) amounted to 36.55m tons, ranking the third in the world (top 2 were India and US). This figure accounted for 4.5% of global output. The output of dairy products (including yogurt, pure milk, etc.) was 29.35 tons, up 4.2% YOY and 15.3% compared with that of 2012.

The pass rate of raw milk, dairy products and infant formula in sampling was 99.8%, 99.2%, and 99.5% respectively. No products failed testing for high priority prohibited substances such as melamine for the ninth consecutive year.

Standardization & Systematization

The application of modern production machinery and technology propelled productivity. Last year, in China, the average milk yield (per cow per annum) of Holstein cows was 7 tons, growing by 0.6 ton YOY and 1.4 tons compared with that of 2012. The scale of dairy farms saw an overall improvement with 58.3% dairy farms having more than 100 cows (up 6% YOY). Farms of large scale have realized 100% mechanized milking.

Inspection & Oversight

Ever since the melamine scandal in 2008, China has carried out a Special Monitoring and Managing Program to safeguard the quality of raw milk. In the past year 23,000 batches of milk underwent sampling, 10,300 milk collection stations and 8,300 transport trucks were inspected on site.

Stringent supervision was also conducted on imported dairy products. 244 batches were rejected by Chinese customs in 2017.

Future Prospect

In 2017, the average consumption rate of dairy products (calculated in kilograms of raw milk equivalent per capita per year) in China was 36.9 Kg. This is half of average consumption in all of Asia, one third of global consumption and just one tenth of the volume consumed in developed countries. Urbanization, increasing incomes, increased birth rates and awareness of the health promoting benefits of dairy amongst Chinese consumers will likely propel further growth in China’s dairy sector.