中国乳制品月报

Welcome to the August issue of Dairy Products ChinaNews.

China’s dairy market is seeing ongoing corporate change, with Mengniu reportedly now in talks to acquire China Modern Dairy, the leading dairy farming business. The leading local businesses retain significant international ambitions – London saw a fleet of buses running an advertising campaign by Yili during the Olympics last week.

Yet its food safety and regulatory systems remains in turmoil: this week came a story about a man in Changsha raising 5 goats on the roof of his house to supply milk for his baby due to concerns about the quality of local milk powder!

The focus on food safety during the visit to the market of the US National Restaurant Association in July was very timely then. The NRA team presented details on its ServSafe Food Safety training program at the China Chain Store & Franchise Association conference and attended the inaugural Global Food Safety Initiative Focus Day China 2012. It also met with the SFDA, noting that foodservice training is a relatively new function for the administration. This seems very relevant as foreign chains grow in the market: only recently Starbucks indicated plans to double its locations in

Chinato 1,500 by 2015 and Dairy Queen plans to take its business there from 500 to 600+ sites by the end of 2012. It seems fitting that the China International Food safety + Quality Conference in Shanghai this November is to feature presentations from McDonalds. Increasing focus on safety issues in the local foodservice sector will surely provide opportunities to dairy exporters to China and to the best of local operators.