According to 2021 China Milk Quotient Report¹ jointly issued by China Dairy Industry Association, China International Exchange and Promotion Association for Medical and Healthcare, and Friesland Campina on May 27, China’s 2021 Milk Quotient is 62.7 points, the same as last year.

Source: 2021 China Milk Quotient Report

The survey shows that although the COVID-19 epidemic helps improve the public's awareness of consuming dairy, the number of Chinese people who keep a daily intake of dairy products is only about 360 million. More than one billion people have not yet formed a dairy consuming habit.

What is Milk Quotient

The Milk Quotient concept was first put forward in 2018 to evaluate Chinese consumers’ understanding and consumption capability from the perspectives of dairy consumption awareness, knowledge, and purchasing behaviors.

This year, the survey project covers 20 Chinese cities and 10 countries, including the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Japan, etc.

Highlights of the report 

Improvement

According to the survey, from 2019 to 2021, Chinese people scored above 80 points for their dairy consuming awareness, while their knowledge and behavior points were below 60. This Milk Quotient features a "high level of dairy consumption awareness and low level of knowledge and purchasing behaviors."

The epidemic has improved people’s dairy consumption awareness. The per capita daily intake of dairy products reached 260ml, increasing by 23ml from 2019. 30.7% of people said they increased their consumption of dairy products after the epidemic outbreak.

From the category of increased dairy intake, dairy foods (products containing milk, including cream biscuits and cream cakes) accounted for the highest of 25.4%, followed by yogurt (20.5%), liquid milk (15.7%), milk powder (14.1%) and cheese (14.1%).

The COVID-19 epidemic also promoted consumers’ concern on nutrition and immunity. More people (37%) recognized that lactoferrin in dairy products helped boost immunity, increasing 7.7 percentage points from 2020. Parents of children aged 0-3 years old have a higher recognition rate of 53%.

To be improved

The survey shows that only 25.5% Chinese people keep a daily intake of dairy products, which means that China's "dairy population" (referring to the population who consume dairy products daily) is about 360 million. More than one billion people still do not form the dairy consumption habit, and the main reasons include “have not developed the habit since childhood” (74.2%), “not feeling well after drinking/eating dairy products" (16.1%), and "dairy is too expensive" (5.4%).

Chinese people also have some cognitive misunderstandings about dairy products. For example, 13.7%  people claimed lactose intolerance, among which 65.7% believed that they could not drink milk. In fact, the lactose intolerant group don't need to cut ties with milk. They can improve tolerance to dairy products through taking yogurt, lactose-free dairy products, and cheese.

Among children aged 0-3, the vast majority (98%) have been drinking breast milk since birth. The  average duration is 13 months, which is still less than the 24 months recommended by the World Health Organization. The top 1 reason (58.8%) for not breastfeeding is “parents think the infant formula is better than breast milk.”

Besides, there is still a gap between China's dairy consumption and the world's major dairy consumption countries.

For instance, the 260 ml per capita daily dairy intake is far from enough compared with that in Japan, the United States, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, where daily dairy intake reaches 600 ml. People in Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, and India even consume more than 1,000ml of dairy products per day on average.

Source: 2021 China Milk Quotient Report

In addition, Chinese people’s dairy consumption structure also needs to improve. The cheese consumption only accounted for 6.4%, the lowest of all countries surveyed (an average of more than 40%).