China's dairy industry saw quantity increase and quality improvement over the past few years, but there are still gaps to fill compared with developed countries in the sector, said Liu Chengguo, the honorary president of Dairy Association of China. He made remarks during the third International Symposium on Dairy Cow Nutrition and Milk Quality, which ended on Monday in Beijing. It was jointly launched by the Institute of Animal Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, American Dairy Science Association and Dairy Association of China.

"We need to recognize that a series of problems occur during the development process of dairy industry, such as the irrational distribution of dairy enterprises, the lagging-behind construction on raw milk bases, as well as lower level of science and technology inputs,"he said.

In 2012, China had 14.4 million cows in stock with 37.44 million metric tons of milk in production. The country now is the third-largest milk producer in the world, said Wang Feng, an official in charge of dairy industry management for the Ministry of Agriculture.

"Due to the increasing population and advanced urbanization, the country's dairy products have a large market. It is estimated that by 2020 the market for dairy products in China will double," he said.

Professionals attending the symposium called for closer international scientific and technological cooperation to improve the quality and safety of dairy products.