China to boost global dairy industry

Likely to help increase the global dairy output by expanding production to meet its own demands.

10/02/05 China hopes to boost the global dairy industry over the decade, thanks to the growing consumption of milk and other dairy products in the world's most populous nation.

With 1.3 billion people but only 13 per cent of the world average milk consumption, China is very likely to help increase the global dairy output by expanding production to meet its own demands, vice director of China Association of Dairy Products Industry, Wang Huaibao said.

China's dairy production has been posting double-digit growth annually since its reform and opening up in the late 1970s. It presently produces 16.25 million tonnes of dairy products a year, Wang said.

The country also enjoys price advantages compared with many developed countries. In 2000, the most recent year that data is available, the cost per kilogram for fresh milk in China was 45 per cent lower than what was reported in North America and the European Union, he said.

With the sustained growth of China's economy and betterment of the people's life, Wang estimated China's per capita annual consumption of dairy products will increase to 18 kilograms by 2015.

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