Chinese dairy companies have been urged to take advantage of abundant domestic resources of buffalo and sheep milk to grab a share of the country's burgeoning cheese market.

The market was expanding rapidly with rising living standards, a growing dairy industry and the influence of Western eating habits, said Wang Dingmian, Guangdong Provincial Diary Association deputy director.

The traditional Chinese diet was changing and the market for cheese was ripe with opportunities, Wang told the third Chinese Congress of Dairy Science and Technology, which opened on Saturday.

The government was encouraging the development of the domestic dairy industry with supportive policies, but few companies had a cheese production capacity and the market was still dominated by overseas products and brands.

Wang suggested domestic companies should use abundant local milk resources like buffalo and sheep to gain a share of the growing market.

Domestic companies also needed to increase investment on technology so as to break the monopoly of overseas companies on the Chinese market.

Every year about 18,000 tons of cheese was sold in China, a per capita average of 1.3 grams, but this was miniscule compared with Greece where each person ate an average of 28.7 kilograms in 2004, and France at 25.3 kilograms.

Other Asian countries with dietary habits similar to China also consumed more cheese, with the Japanese eating an average two kilograms a year and people in the Republic of Korea 1.1 kilograms.

Adam Ling, senior sales engineer with packaging giant Tetra Pak, said that before the turn of the century, nearly 50 percent of milk produced in Europe was made into cheese, and 48.9 percent in the United States. The proportions rose to 65.2 percent and 51 percent respectively after 2003.

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