Dairy Products China News(Dairy Products China News 202301)

Recent statistics from China have been sobering:

• The population has fallen for the first time since 1961 – a decline which is hitting much sooner than many observers anticipated
• In 2021 GDP growth was 3% – the 2nd slowest growth rate in almost 50 years – whilst milk demand was down 14%
• A large proportion of the population has been hit by COVID infections since the beginning of December last year, reportedly affecting as many as 1.2 billion people and inevitably acting as a brake on demand recovery

Whilst these points obviously attract the headlines, some of the more structural background details are concerning – for example the significant regional disparities in the ageing of China's population, with the economically more advanced eastern provinces and municipalities generally much better placed than the western regions in this regard. The WHO officially proposed the concept of healthy ageing in 2015, following up with the Global Strategy and Action Plan on Ageing and Health (2016–2020) in 2016. In November 2021 China's State Council published a comprehensive, strategic plan to achieve healthy and active ageing. Its ongoing relevance is clear: a national plan for health-care development had called for community clinics to have 3.5 health workers per 1,000 residents by 2020. At the start of the pandemic, Wuhan's had only 2.7.

Although dedicating a lower proportion of GDP to healthcare than the US and OECD countries, China has been spending more on healthcare over recent decades. This is not new – Mao's "barefoot doctors" programme trained large numbers of young Chinese to provide affordable basic care to China's rural population, for instance. There are some ironies here, though:

• Dramatic improvements in healthcare have helped increases in life expectancy which have created new health challenges
• China's international policy has involved considerable investments in overseas healthcare systems in regions such as Africa from the early 1960's. Meanwhile, though, major health challenges have been building up at home
• COVID-19 has given Chinese pharma and biotech firms as well as CROs the chance to gain international recognition by partnering with global counter parts.

In China today healthy eating and self-medication are very much in: as in most countries, the state clearly wants to avoid footing more of the bill than it has to. Products such as the new formulae from the main dairy and nutritionals manufacturers – as featured in this and previous issues – will definitely be welcome in a country looking to live not only longer but also more healthily. This will be even more the case if those products are produced by domestic manufacturers, a clear pointer for dairy ingredients manufacturers looking to take advantage of this trend.