Revitalizing the dairy industry needs more than just confidence

For 8 consecutive years, the story of China's dairy industry striving to govern and stage a desperate counterattack has been unfolding with difficulty, and it has become more and more splendid and more and more vivid.

Why 8 years, and not 10 years, 20 years or longer? This may be a phenomenon unique to the domestic dairy industry, and it is also the biggest pain point of the domestic dairy industry. The melamine incident, which was fiercely exposed in 2008, almost brought disaster to the domestic dairy industry. At that time, all products marked as domestic milk, whether from large or small merchants, were removed from shelves, and the scene was hard to look at directly. It has been exactly 8 years since then. Before that, many domestic dairy companies had been working hard, and after that, even more domestic dairy companies worked even harder. However, because of that incident that shamed the entire industry, the efforts of so many people and so many enterprises were wasted. No matter how glorious you once were, how many hardships and setbacks you went through, and how many difficulties and obstacles you overcame, from then on you needed to rebuild your image and win consumer recognition all over again from the start.

8 years passed in a flash, but the domestic dairy industry always seems to have a shadow that cannot be erased. In recent years, whenever people talk about revitalizing the domestic dairy industry, they always touch on one topic: it is necessary to enhance Chinese people's confidence in consuming domestic milk. Is insufficient consumer confidence a mindset of once bitten by a snake? Or is it a mentality that foreign monks chant scriptures better? It may be both, but it also seems that consumer confidence cannot be completely equated with these two mindsets. A very vivid example is that in the past 3 years, every year's dairy industry conference has sent out one message: domestic milk is at a historically highest level. This precisely shows that compared with our past selves, we are doing better year by year and quality is higher year by year, but there is still considerable room for improvement in product quality. Because if every year is at a historically highest level, then the "highest" of the following year must be continued progress on the basis of the previous year, and an improvement on the previous year.

This is the key to the problem. Consumer confidence is not quite sufficient, of course affected by many psychological factors, but the most fundamental issue still lies in the product itself: only with good cows can there be good milk; only with good milk can there be a good market. That is right. In recent years, the domestic dairy industry has developed one step at a time, one step at a time, with spot-check pass rates nearly 100 percent. The achievements are obvious to all, and consumers have already expressed their confidence through action. It can be seen from the data that even for infant formula, which was most obviously affected, the market share of domestic formula has gradually recovered to 51% in recent years. You should know that in the first few years, imported formula once accounted for 75% of the domestic market. But does this show that the quality of domestic milk is already flawless and enough to let consumers completely walk out of that mindset? Not yet. According to authoritative statements, we still need 5 to 10 years, and will strive to reach the international advanced level in dairy quality by 2020. This means that reaching the international advanced level in dairy quality still requires at least several more years.

So seeing the achievements, facing up to the gap, and improving quality, this is the necessary path for China's dairy industry to strive to become strong. On this point, we need courage, and we also need integrity. This courage means daring to truly make the quality of China's dairy industry first-class in the world, and daring to make consumers completely conquered by you and convinced by you, thereby firmly holding the "milk bottle" in our own hands; this integrity means not covering up when facing problems, never being perfunctory when facing difficulties, seeking truth from facts, shortcomings are shortcomings, flaws are flaws, rather than blaming competitors when there is a problem, blaming others for not buying your products when encountering difficulties, and always looking for reasons externally.

Confidence is more important than gold. This saying fits domestic milk consumption very well. Whether it was the difficulties 8 years ago or the hard work over the past 8 years, improving quality and boosting confidence have always accompanied the domestic dairy industry. Perhaps when we have the courage and integrity to face the problems behind confidence and effectively solve the difficult issues behind confidence, the golden moment for domestic milk will arrive.