There are foundations and conditions for the overall revitalization of the dairy industry.

On August 26, the summit and revitalization meeting of China's top 20 dairy industry was held in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province. What is the support for the revitalization of the dairy industry? How can the dairy industry enhance its competitiveness in the future? During the meeting, Minister of Agriculture Han Changfu accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from the Economic Daily.

Reporter: why do we have no reason to give up the national dairy industry?

Han Changfu: the consumption level of milk is an important symbol of the national living standard of a country. A well-off society cannot live without milk, and more than one billion Chinese people cannot do without their own national dairy industry. We are moving towards realizing the dream of the first century, and it is inconceivable that some people can't drink milk to build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way. Since the beginning of the new century, with the rapid progress of urbanization and the continuous improvement of people's living standards, the number of milk consumption and per capita consumption have increased significantly. However, the per capita dairy consumption in China is only 1/3 of the world average and 1/2 of that in Asia. Rural residents, who account for half of the country's population, seldom or fail to drink milk, which is a deficiency of China's dairy industry.

Weakness is potential. We are still a developing country, with more than 1 million dairy farmers, more than 10 million dairy cows, hundreds of dairy enterprises and an expanding market of more than 1 billion people, so there is no reason for us to give up the national dairy industry. For the sake of the happy life of the Chinese people, the increase of farmers' employment and income, and the supply of important agricultural products and food, we must speed up the revitalization of the national dairy industry and make unremitting efforts for all Chinese people to drink milk and high-quality milk.

Reporter: as a big dairy country, what is the basis for the revitalization of China's dairy industry?

Han Changfu: in recent years, the quality of China's dairy industry has improved significantly, and comprehensive revitalization has the basis and conditions, and we should be full of confidence in the revitalization of the dairy industry. China has made great efforts to rectify and revitalize the dairy industry, paying close attention to quality supervision, technological progress, production development and brand construction. First, the comprehensive production capacity has increased steadily. In 2015, China's output of fresh milk and dairy products ranked third in the world; per capita milk consumption reached 36 kg, an increase of 28.4 kg over 2000. Second, the level of quality and safety has been greatly improved. In 2015, the qualified rate of national sampling inspection of fresh milk and dairy products reached 99.3% and 99.5% respectively, and the indicators of milk protein and milk fat in large-scale farms reached the level of developed countries. Third, there is a marked change in the mode of production of the dairy industry. The proportion of large-scale farming of dairy cows exceeded 48%, and all large-scale farms realized mechanized milking; there were more than 15000 professional cooperative organizations of dairy farmers, and the level of standardization and organization was significantly improved. In addition, the level of major dairy processing equipment and technology has approached or reached the world's advanced level, and the market share of the top 20 dairy enterprises has exceeded 50%.

Of course, there are still some problems in China's dairy industry, such as low degree of standardization, high production cost, disconnection of breeding and processing, lack of stable interest connection mechanism, lack of competitive enterprise brand and so on. Especially under the impact of imports, we are faced with some outstanding problems, such as low milk prices, difficult sales, reduced income of dairy farmers, increased enterprise inventory and so on. But the difficulties are temporary. We have world-class processing enterprises, the largest potential consumer market in the world, and strong support from the state. These are all favorable conditions for the development of China's dairy industry.

Reporter: in the face of international competition, how does China's dairy industry practice hard internal skills?

Han Changfu: it is an important and urgent task to accelerate the supply-side structural reform, enhance the competitiveness of China's dairy industry, and do a good job in revitalizing the dairy industry. Focusing on improving quality and efficiency, we should vigorously promote the scale, organization, standardization and brand of the dairy industry, and strive to enter the ranks of world dairy powers as a whole in 2025. The focus is on the following aspects.

Relying on the construction of a high-quality milk source base, "plant good grass, raise well, and produce good milk". Efforts should be made to achieve "improved breeds of dairy animals, high quality of forage grass and standardization of production" to promote cost-saving, quality improvement and efficiency improvement in the dairy industry. Every year, an additional 500000 mu of high-yield and high-quality alfalfa bases will be built, the pilot project of "changing grain to feed" will be carried out in 100 counties, and the demonstration of standardized breeding of dairy cows will be continued to support the transformation and upgrading of 9 to 1000 large-scale farms every year. By 2020, there will be more than 3 million high-yielding dairy cows with more than 8 tons, and the proportion of large-scale farming will exceed 70%.

Focus on improving the quality supervision system of modern dairy industry, "strict production, strong supervision, create brand". It is necessary to improve the standards and norms for dairy farming, improve the standardized production system of dairy products, strengthen the control of the production process, and constantly improve the level of "production". Implement the dairy quality and safety inspection plan, improve the whole process quality and safety traceability system, and build a strict quality and safety supervision system of the whole industry chain.

To promote the integration of aquaculture and processing as a starting point to achieve win-win cooperation between dairy farmers and dairy enterprises. The dairy industry covers forage planting, dairy farming, dairy processing and other links, to promote the healthy development of the dairy industry, we need to be kind to dairy farmers. It is necessary to establish a stable interest connection mechanism between dairy farmers and dairy enterprises, so as to integrate the upstream and downstream links of the production chain organically. Dairy farmers want to grow, improve the degree of organization, enhance the ability to deal with market risks; enterprises should invest, build, purchase, participate in shares, trust farms, and increase the proportion of their own milk sources; the government should support and urge all parties to stabilize the relationship between production and marketing.

Take the overall use of two kinds of resources in two markets as the layout to enhance the international competitiveness of the dairy industry in an all-round way. China's dairy industry has a high degree of opening to the outside world, and with the deepening of the construction of "Belt and Road Initiative", it will integrate into the international market to a greater extent in the future. On the one hand, we should appropriately import dairy products, adjust the surplus and shortage, and meet the diversified needs of domestic consumers; on the other hand, we should encourage enterprises to speed up overseas layout, actively make use of overseas resources, and open up international markets.