China to Drive Global Dairy Demand

This rise in demand is reported by Dairy Australia, in their February update. Ongoing urbanisation and continuing concerns about the quality and safety of domestic food production support consumer demand.

China's dairy imports have increased rapidly over the past decade from 220,000 tonnes in 2001, to more than one million tonnes in 2011.

WMP imports have been the largest product category in recent years. However Chinese whey powder imports became the largest category in 2011, rising from 274kt to 356kt, 33 per cent of total import volumes. Chinese WMP imports decreased slightly in 2011, down about 6kt (1.8 per cent) to 320kt and now represent 30 per cent of total dairy imports.

Chinese WMP imports decreased slightly in 2011, down about 6kt (1.8 per cent) to 320kt and now represent 30 per cent of total dairy imports.

While WMP is usually the primary anlytical focus for dairy demand, Chinese imports of butter and cheese increased more than 20 per cent in the last year alone, and will continue to grow given changing diets and increasing presence of western style foods.