China becoming dairy giant

China has overtaken Russia and Pakistan to become the world’s third largest dairy producer.

China’s output of dairy products rose by 15% in 2006 to 32.9m tonnes putting the country in third place after India and the US. The Dairy Association of China attributed the growth to the expansion in processing capacity. Both industrial output and sales revenues of major dairy processing companies had increased sevenfold between 1998 and 2006.