China’s Dairy IndustryAssociation has revealed a draft on enhancing standards for
several milk products in China. The step comes at a time, where the government
is strengthening domestic dairy producers and works on increasing the
quality of local products and hence the trust of Chinese consumers.
Source: Shutterstock
At
the end of July, the China Dairy Industry Association has published the drafts
of new industrial standards for concentrated milk, concentrated fermented milk,
maternal milk powder, and milk powder for elderly in China. According to market
intelligence firm CCM, after the drafts are getting ratified and come in
to effect, they will be the first standards for these products in China.
The
draft is stating the maximal amount of protein, fat, non-fat milk solid, and
acid allowed in concentrated milk. For concentrated skim milk, the standard is
differentiating between semi skimmed and skimmed milk for the maximal allowed
amount of mineral ingredients.
Looking
at the draft for maternal milk powder, the items that are regulated in
the index are protein, iron, vitamin A, vitamin D, folic acid, and
vitamin B12. The new standard for milk powder for elderly is also
regulation the amount of lactose allowed as well as calcium and zinc as additional mineral
for regulation.
In
fact, the China Dairy Industry Association has declared in this year,
that the quality of Chinese milk will get improved to meet with
international standards. This measurement is accompanied by a massive media
campaign, to build more trust for Chinese customers for local products.
According to the government, the campaign aims to ensure a sufficient market
share of local dairy products, to not give up a massive market like
the dairy market for foreign investors.
China’s
President Xi Jinping said earlier in 2017，that his government would impose “the strictest
standards, most stringent supervision, toughest accountability measures, and
impose the harshest punishments” to ensure food safety and quality in
the country.
China
is continuously improving the quality of its domestic dairy products, which
still face some hesitant buying behaviour from Chinese customers. The massive melamine scandal of 2008, which killed six babies and left thousands in serious
health condition, is still remembered by much Chinese, who are preferably are
buying foreign trusted products, especially when it comes to the nutrition of
vulnerable people like infants, pregnant woman and elderly.
According
to a newly published report by the China Dairy Industry Association and the
Ministry of Agriculture, almost 99.9% of fresh milk in China and more than
99.5% of dairy products, in general, have met the standards. The study has
been carried out in 2016 and shows the vast improvement in China’s
domestic dairy products.
The
China Dairy Industry Association explains the positive results of the study
with the load of measurements that have taken place in China in the last years,
such as enhancing the regulations for dairy products, lifting up the industry
standards to western ones, and increase the supervision of officials
over the production.
For
more information on the new standards or China’s dairy market in general,
please have a look at our monthly dairy newsletter and newly published report:
Dairy
Products China News
Governmental
Direction of China’s Dairy Industry
Suspensions and
supervision
The
efforts of China’s government towards better dairy product quality can
also be seen in the suspension of several milk and
dairy products. For example, the Food and Drug Administration has recently
suspended dairy products from Australia, which were marked of failing
the Chinese standards. The reason for the suspension of milk was a
wrong heating temperature for the pasteurisation.
Development
China’s
dairy market was enduring a flood of cheap imports from the years of 2008 and
following, due to the melamine scandal as well as the overall hardly
transparent situation of domestic quality standards in the local industry.
Since
the year of 2014, domestic dairy products began to get market share in China,
because local dairy firms got cheap domestic milk available and imports
of particular products began to decline for the first time. However,
the uprising of e-commerce has influenced the buying channels of Chinese
customers, which kept the imports especially for liquid milk on a high level.
Nevertheless,
the Chinese government views the rise of e-commerce dairy imports as
interfering with domestic products and is streamlining e-commerce while
simultaneously restricting the number of dairy companies that can sell milk
products in China. All the recent measurements are decreasing the
influence of foreign enterprises on the Chinese dairy market.
About CCM
CCM is the leading market intelligence provider for China’s agriculture, chemicals,
food & ingredients and life science markets.
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