Illustrating the strong correlation between economic growth and dairy consumption, China’s milk consumption continues to be spurred by consumers demanding healthier and more nutritious foods. With rising affluence in the world’s fast-growing consumer market, there is a rapidly growing penchant for international food and beverage concepts which use a lot of milk and milk products. The PRC government has also been promoting the need for nutrition as evidenced by the government’s nation-wide School Milk Programme.

In fact, so great is the demand for milk and milk products that China’s dairy industry has been experiencing a shortage situation of raw milk, primarily due to the inability of the local dairy industries to meet demand.

This scenario provides immense opportunities for dairy companies like us, particularly in the production and sale of pedigree bull semen, pedigree dairy cow embryos and quality raw milk.

A key strategy in addressing the shortage issue is to increase the average production capacity of dairy cows to supply more raw milk to China’s dairy industries. While the number of dairy cows in China has recorded significant growth in recent years, the average raw milk production per cow per annum is notably lower than that of other milk-producing countries. In 2007, the annual raw milk production per cow in China was 4.02 tonnes, compared to 9.19 tonnes in the United States, and 8.8 and 8.1 tonnes in Japan and Canada respectively¹.

The PRC government continues to encourage local farmers to adopt breed-improvement programmes to improve the genetics and productivity of cattle population.

The Department of Agriculture has also introduced a programme to transplant pedigree dairy cow embryos in farms in Beijing, Xinjiang, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Shanxi, Hebei and Shandong. Embryo transplants, using artificial insemination technology, increase the rate of success in breeding programmes, as well as reduce the risk of diseases.

Owning the largest herd of the highly-prized Canadian Holsteins in the PRC, China Milk has seen buoyant demand for our pedigree bull semen and cow embryos as goverment bureaus continue to purchase these products for their breed improvement programmes.