The Responsibility and Mission of Modern Dairy Industry Development

At this critical moment of transformation and upgrading of our country's dairy industry, 20 dairy enterprises in our country have gathered in Beijing to earnestly fulfill their corporate social responsibility, ensure the quality and safety of dairy products, and jointly discuss the major plans for revitalizing our country's dairy industry. This is of great significance for building consensus, pooling strength, and promoting the sustainable and healthy development of the dairy industry.

Milk is hailed as the “most nearly perfect food” bestowed upon humanity by nature, and is a nutritional food universally accepted by countries around the world. A glass of milk can nourish a life and strengthen a nation. The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the development of the dairy industry and to quality and safety work, and have done a great deal of highly effective work in areas such as policy support, safety supervision, market cultivation, and boosting confidence, with remarkable results. In particular, in 2001, 2004, and 2006, our country's milk output successively crossed 3 thresholds of 10 million tons. After that, output stabilized at around 35 million tons. Now, more than 200 million jin of milk are sold on the market in our country every day, and more than 21 million portions of student drinking milk are distributed. Various products such as UHT milk, yogurt, pasteurized milk, milk powder, and milk beverages are complete in variety and abundant in supply, and the people's “milk bottle” is guaranteed. It can be said that our country has gone through the dairy industry development course that developed countries took over a hundred years to complete in just over 30 years.

At present, our country's dairy industry is at an important stage full of promise. Although our country's per capita milk possession has increased from less than 1 kg in 1978 to 33.8 kg in 2014, it is still only 1/3 of the world average level and 1/2 of the average level of developing countries. With our country's population growth, advancing urbanization, and improvement in people's living standards, there is huge room for growth in dairy consumption, which brings very broad prospects for industry development. But it must also be clearly seen that the dairy industry is also facing the “growing pains” of transformation and upgrading, such as some consumers lacking confidence in domestic dairy products, increasingly high production costs, frequent fluctuations in raw milk prices, and declining benefits of dairy cow farming. Some enterprises have declining benefits and operating difficulties, and in a few places there have even been incidents of dumping milk and slaughtering cows. Accelerating the transformation of the agricultural development mode and vigorously advancing the construction of a modern dairy industry have become realistic and urgent tasks before us.

Dairy enterprises are the cells of dairy industry development, and leading dairy enterprises are even more the backbone of China's dairy industry. Dairy enterprises have the responsibility to hold up the banner of “safe, high-quality, and reassuring” national dairy industry, reshape the image of the dairy industry, and revitalize China's dairy industry. First, they must strengthen quality awareness, resolutely implement the principle of quality first, and cultivate brands and build reputations like birds cherishing their feathers. Second, they must, according to the diversified needs of the market, accelerate product innovation, technological innovation, business philosophy innovation, and business model innovation. They should actively adopt emerging circulation formats such as e-commerce, accelerate the construction of the cold chain logistics system, reduce circulation costs, and improve circulation efficiency. Third, they must carry out whole-industry-chain operations in multiple links such as forage planting, dairy cow farming, and dairy processing, so that farmers and herdsmen can share more of the benefits of the industry chain and promote the healthy and sustainable development of the dairy industry. Fourth, in the process of global economic integration, they must accelerate the pace of external cooperation. While moderately importing dairy products, they must also improve their internal strength, strengthen their own capabilities, and raise the ability and level of international competition of enterprises.

Enterprises are the main body of dairy industry development. To make China's dairy industry bigger and stronger fundamentally depends on a group of dairy enterprises with innovation capability and competitive strength, and on the entire industry joining hands and working together. It is hoped that China's dairy enterprises will be self-reliant and self-strengthening, serve as links between enterprises and the government, promoters of mutual cooperation among enterprises, leaders in standardizing industry development, and organizers safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises, make their own efforts for the sustainable, healthy, and safe development of China's dairy industry, and jointly open a new future for the development of China's dairy industry.