Dairy Products China News 2024

Dairy Products China News provides you with real-time intelligence on China’s dairy market.

It is a monthly published newsletter, which can be downloaded in PDF format. The subscription period is yearly, and grants the subscriber 12 issues in total.

Demand for dairy products has increased so rapidly in China that the country has become the center of the global dairy market - the main driver of the ‘white gold rush’ in 2014, and the subsequent crash the following year.

Competition is intensifying as more international dairy companies seek to make their fortunes in this huge market, while domestic players are struggling to remain competitive through M&A, improving raw milk supplies and upgrading processing facilities. Meanwhile, the ecommerce revolution is putting pressure on prices and the government continues to tighten regulations on food safety and imports.

Dairy Products China News will help you stay ahead of the game in this fast-changing market with real-time reporting on the entire dairy industry chain, from raw milk and milk powder to infant formula, cheese and other end products.

The newsletter includes:

• Breaking news from China and abroad
• The latest market data, including price information for raw materials, intermediates and end products, import/export data, production, consumption, operating rates, etc.
• In-depth analysis of market trends, Chinese government policy, the performance of leading Chinese producers, M&A, new technologies, and more
• Expert commentary from industry insiders, including regular guest articles and interviews with insiders at leading Chinese manufacturers, associations and government organizations

Indifferent consumer demand in China remains a fundamental challenge, and is an obvious topic of discussion at the current CDIA meeting in Changsha. However, the recent results from some dairy processors such as New Hope Dairy do run counter to this, as do growing sales of premium products. Branded operators in key categories of the future remain confident - Savencia, for instance, has recently been celebrating the success of its cheese business in China, first established in 1997. The company has expanded its local facilities twice over the intervening period and now runs 20+ production lines and employs 400+ staff locally.

There have been some positive signs in the economy. It is notable that whilst ex-factory prices continue to trend downwards, China's consumer prices have begun to rise a little - inflation edged up to 0.3% in April, after 0.1% in March, modest enough numbers but still a change following the extended period of deflation experienced since last summer.

Undeniably, though, exporters to China across many sectors have grown less confident - a recent survey of members of the European Chamber of Commerce in China showed that only 13% of respondents expected it to be their main export market in the future - an unprecedented figure. It is clear that the country's structural economic problems remain unresolved. More than a third expected to invest less in China in the future, and a considerable number were looking at relocating sites out of China into other parts of Asia.

Nevertheless, whilst most dairy categories were down last month, China's imports jumped 8.4% YOY in April to USD220.1 billion, a striking rate of growth which exceeded most expectations - and part of a trend which may see the country soon becoming the world's leading importer. As has been widely noted, this impetus derives from the push to acquire and build up artificial intelligence capabilities and networks. China's high-tech imports rose 16.7% YOY in April to USD61.8 billion. Despite the undeniably tense geopolitical relations between the two countries - often raised as concerns during our discussions with distributors of imported dairy regarding potential new lines of supply - overall imports from the US across all categories rose 11.1% to USD14.6 billion in April.