중국 낙농업의 실태와 전망

The Status and Prospects of Dairy Industry in China

Dairy industry in China has achieved very rapid growth in recent years to meet the increasing demand, mainly depending on cow herd expansion. But milk consumption level in China still by far falls short of those in other Asian countries with similar dietary patterns such as Korea and Japan. However, milk production in China is gradually facing the limits of domestic resources such as land, feed, water and energy. As a result, China began to shift from herd to yield increase through genetic improvements. On the other hand, Chinese cow belt is located in the north, although the major consumption markets are in the eastern and southern costal areas. Further the short shelf life and high transportation cost of pasteurized milk have resulted in higher retail price than UHT (Ultra High Temperature) milk. Consequently, UHT milk enjoys high market share and also likely to play a leading role in rural areas where milk consumption and cold chain system are still immature. This implies that Chinese dairy market is very attractive to Korea in two respects. First, Korea can export both pasteurized and UHT milk to the densely populated eastern (Huadong) and southern (Huanan) parts of China. In addition, Chinese effort to increase production efficiency provides an opportunity for Korea to export technologies related to bovine genetic improvement. For the export of fluid milk, domestic dairy enterprises can make most use of the Korean hypermarket chains already settled in China instead of establishing new marketing channels. Also care need to be taken to the possibility of import of liquid milk from China in the long run.