An overview of China's dairy industry development achievements in recent years
A single glass of milk strengthens a nation. The development of the dairy industry is closely tied to every citizen, yet the 2008 melamine incident dealt a major blow to China's dairy industry, severely undermining consumer confidence.
Learning from painful lessons, rising from the ashes. After 8 years of arduous effort, China's dairy industry has achieved leapfrog development, with dairy quality and safety at its best level in history, and the grand blueprint for the revitalization of the national dairy industry is slowly unfolding.
Top-level design comprehensively overhauls the industry
In October 2008, China's first dairy industry regulation, the Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Dairy Quality and Safety, was officially issued, marking the beginning of strengthening top-level design and comprehensively overhauling the dairy industry.
The Outline of the Plan for the Rectification and Revitalization of the Dairy Industry carries out comprehensive rectification of all links in dairy production, procurement, processing and sales; the Measures for the Administration of Raw Milk Production and Procurement regulates raw milk production, procurement, transportation and supervision and testing; the National Layout Plan for Advantageous Dairy Cow Regions (2008-2015) maps out the macro development of the dairy industry; 66 new national dairy safety standards resolved problems such as duplication, overlap, contradictions and unscientific indicator setting in dairy standards... The successive introduction of a series of policies and systems has built a long-term mechanism for the sustainable and healthy development of the dairy industry.
Facing the issue of infant formula milk powder that consumers care about most, the state also twice re-examined the production licenses of dairy product and infant formula milk powder enterprises, eliminated a number of enterprises with no guaranteed milk source and backward production technology, and tightened systems such as batch-by-batch inspection of raw materials entering factories, production processes and finished products for dairy enterprises.
In order to help the national dairy industry emerge from the trough as quickly as possible, the state also injected support funds into the dairy industry, specifically used for dairy cow improved breed subsidies, large-scale dairy cow breeding, demonstration creation of high-yield and high-quality alfalfa, and dairy cow performance testing, with cumulative support funds from 2008 to 2015 reaching 8.66 billion yuan.
The introduction of a series of policy "combined punches" injected strong momentum into the national dairy industry's rallying of its forces. By 2015, the proportion of large-scale dairy cow breeding nationwide was close to 50%, whole-plant silage feed was rapidly popularized, a production system with large-scale dairy farms and medium- and high-yield dairy cow herds as the main body had initially taken shape, mechanized milking and cold-chain storage and transportation were fully realized, driving revolutionary changes in the quality and safety of China's dairy industry.
Upholding quality to rebuild public trust
In August this year, domestic dairy enterprise Junlebao announced that its infant formula milk powder would enter the Hong Kong, China market for sale in the form of "same product, same quality, same price" as on the mainland. According to test results from an authoritative international institution, this milk powder fully complies with relevant Hong Kong, China standards in terms of nutritional composition and food safety.
From going to Hong Kong, China to buy milk powder, to going to Hong Kong, China to sell milk powder - the magnificent transformation of domestically produced infant formula milk powder is a true portrayal of the national dairy industry's rise against adversity.
Since 2009, the Milk and Dairy Product Quality Supervision, Inspection and Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture has for 8 consecutive years led 43 quality inspection institutions nationwide in implementing the national raw milk quality and safety monitoring plan, focusing on the supervision of milk stations and transport vehicles and achieving two "full coverages" in raw milk quality and safety sampling inspections, namely sampling inspections covering all milk stations nationwide, and testing indicators covering all prohibited additives, building a regulatory system for the entire dairy industry chain.
The recently released China Dairy Quality Report shows that the pass rate of sampling inspections for prohibited additives in China's raw milk has remained at 100% for 7 consecutive years. In 2015, the average values of milk protein rate and milk fat rate, which mark dairy quality, reached 3.14% and 3.69% respectively, higher than China's national standard for raw milk by 0.34 and 0.59 percentage points respectively. The total bacterial count dropped to 467,000 CFU/ml, far below the national standard of 2 million CFU/ml, and the somatic cell count dropped to 333,000/ml, with major quality and hygiene indicators reaching the level of developed countries.
Affected by the infant formula milk powder incident, the market share of imported milk powder in China once reached 75%. The latest data shows that the market share of domestic milk powder has gradually recovered to more than 50%. China's dairy industry is using its own efforts to regain consumer trust.
Transformation and upgrading toward a modern dairy industry
The past pain also brought accelerated progress in dairy industry integration.
Gu Jicheng, vice president and secretary-general of the Dairy Association of China, said that only through the integration of all chains including planting, breeding, processing and sales can a close dairy industry interest linkage mechanism truly be established and the problems of China's traditional dairy industry being "small, scattered, low and poor" be fundamentally solved.
Data from the Ministry of Agriculture shows that in recent years China has achieved remarkable results in promoting dairy industry integration. In 2015, the proportion of milk source bases built by or with equity participation from dairy enterprises nationwide exceeded 20%, nearly tripling compared with 2008. Enterprises such as Huishan Dairy and Modern Farming each had around 200,000 dairy cows in stock, with alfalfa planting area of more than 100,000 mu, achieving full self-sufficiency in milk sources.
Changes are also quietly taking place among dairy farmers. At present, there are 15,100 specialized dairy farmer production cooperatives nationwide, an increase of 6.2 times compared with 2008, and dairy farmers' professional capabilities have improved markedly. Most dairy farmers have signed milk purchase contracts with dairy enterprises, and cooperative relations are trending toward long-term stability.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture's plan, by the end of the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, national milk output will reach 40.8 million tons, increasing by 400,000 tons annually; the proportion of large-scale breeding with more than 100 dairy cows in stock will reach 70%, 22 percentage points higher than now, and large-scale breeding will become the dominant force in the animal husbandry industry.
The pass is like iron, yet now we stride forward from the beginning.
"We are confident that in 5 to 10 years, we will strive to bring dairy quality to the international advanced level by 2020, and enter the ranks of the world's dairy powers as a whole by 2025, achieve the goal of dairy industry revitalization and development, and firmly hold the 'milk bottle' in our own hands," said Han Changfu, Minister of Agriculture.