Only quality first can revive Chinese dairies

A consumer searches dairy products in a supermarket in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, in June. [Photo by Zhen Huai/For China Daily]

More than half of China's dairy farms are reportedly incurring losses. Some dairy farmers have killed their cows or fed unsold fresh milk to pigs to cut their losses. China Youth Daily commented on Tuesday:

The oversupply of milk seems to be an unlikely scenario for a country where the per capita consumption of dairy products is only one-third of the world's average. But it does seem to be the case.

On the one hand, imported dairy products are cheaper than their overstocked Chinese counterparts. The former are reportedly priced at 18,000 yuan ($2,700) per ton, while the latter can be as high as 30,000 yuan per ton.

Should such a price gap continue to widen in favor of foreign dairies, it will be just a matter of time before small Chinese dairies that only own a limited number free-range cows quit the business for good.

On the other hand, the Chinese dairy industry remains very disorderly with inefficient division of labor and poor integration between dairy farming and production.

Dairy enterprises, for example, have often focused too much on expansion rather than improving their operations and management. Besides, a lack of faith in domestic dairy products is still common among Chinese people, after the 2008 scandal involving milk and infant formula adulterated with melamine, which left at least six babies dead and thousands seriously ill.

That complaints about the poor quality of domestic dairy products can still be heard from time to time indicates that Chinese dairy companies still haven't fully regained the public's trust. They should make quality supervision their priority and respond in a timely manner to public doubts about their products.