Economy and Business

2010 China Dairy Forum held in Sichuan

By Huang Zhiling and Ji Dongyang (China Daily Sichuan Bureau)
Updated: 2010-05-26 11:20

MIANYANG: China's dairy market, which suffered a heavy blow in the wake of the melamine-tainted milk products scandal in 2008, returned to normal and witnessed rapid development in 2009.

From January to December, the country's dairy output was up nearly 13 percent over the previous year, according to the China Dairy Industry Association. But the output of raw milk still could not satisfy the needs of dairy enterprises.

To address the problem, the Dairy Management Office of the Ministry of Agriculture, the College of Agriculture and Rural Development at Renmin University of China (RUC) and the RUC-Tetra Pak Dairy Research Center jointly held the 2010 China Dairy Forum in Mianyang, Sichuan province, on May 20.

Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, National Development and Reform Commission and China Dairy Association as well as officials and experts from the RUC and Tetra Park participated in the forum, whose theme was raw milk base construction and scientific development.

They discussed raw milk base construction, concentrated cow breeding and how to improve the dairy quality and output.

Professor Li Shengli of China Agricultural University, who is also the chief scientist at the National Science and Technology System, said that thanks to the government's support for concentrated cow breeding, some individual farmers have given up cow breeding.

But a large number of farmers still breed cows at home, increasing the risk of disease outbreak, he said.

To remedy the situation, China has to resort to the standardized and concentrated cow breeding model, for it is the only way out for its dairy industry, said Wang Junxun, chief of the Dairy Management Office of the Ministry of Agriculture

According to Li, owners of many pastures try hard to increase the number of cows but neglect the production of forage and fodder, how to get rid of manure, prevent and control diseases, which has increased the breeding cost, and the difficulty of manure and disease control.

To cope with the problems, the country has to stress forage and feed development, improve the management of pastures, and try to increase the milk output of each cow instead of trying to just increase the number of cows, he said.

To upgrade the level of China's raw milk production and management, Tetra Pak launched the so-called Tetra Pak Raw Milk Support Project in 2008 to beef up raw milk base construction in the country.

It has set up dairy farmer schools in 18 provinces teaching practical skills to over 41 million milk farmers nationwide.

It formally launched the second-phase training plan of the Sino-Swedish Dairy Center earlier this year in order to train 500 professional pasture managers in the next three years.

Tetra Pak, a Swedish firm, is the world's leading food processing and packaging solution provider. It entered the Chinese market in 1979 and has witnessed the development of China's dairy industry.

It has invested nearly 2.9 billion yuan ($426 million) in the Chinese market and set up over 10 branches in Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong.