China becomes world's 3rd largest milk producer

China's milk output in 2006 amounted to 30 million tons, making the country the world's third largest milk producer, following India and America, Xinhua News Agency reported on its website. Driven by huge domestic market demand, China's milk yield has increased by ten times in about ten years.

In the past ten years, the average yearly increase in the rate of milk output was 14.6 percent. Especially since 2000, the rate reached 23 percent. The milk yield of 2005 totaled 27.5 million tons.

Due to the rapidly developing economy, improved living standards and changed dietary habits, the production, supply, and sales of China's dairy products have rapidly increased accordingly, said Pan Beilei, president of the China State Commission of the International Dairy Federation at the opening ceremony of the first International Milk Industry Festival, held in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Presently, the yearly increase in the volume of China's milk output occupies 50 percent of the world's total increasing volume. China has become a huge market in the global dairy industry.

Though China's dairy industry is developing fast, there is still a large gap, compared with the world's largest dairy powers. In 2006, the world's milk output was 0.644 billion tons and the per capita volume was 100 kilograms. Meanwhile, China's per capita volume only equaled a quarter of the world's average output.