China is on a buying spree for all things dairy. Milk powder, baby formula, dairy cattle, bull semen, processing plants and even dairy farms in Australia are on the Chinese shopping list.
The reasons are just as many: a huge population to feed; a growing affluent middle class; a desire for more protein; diets becoming more westernised; young Chinese mothers going to back to work after childbirth; and a push for safer food.
While China has bought dairy products from Australia and New Zealand for many years, its government has also been trying to build its own domestic industry over the past decade.
Dairy farms have been moving from small farms of a handful of cows, to huge milking operations of 150,000 cows.
According to National Australia Bank senior agribusiness manager for Asia Laura Mattiazzi, China wants to rapidly move into a “corporatised, risk-free industry”.