Modern management can end milk dumping

The year has begun ominously for dairy farmers in northern China, with many of them being forced to dump their milk and slaughter their cows because of the falling prices of dairy products. Some in Hebei province have even been feeding fresh milk to pigs.

The imbalance between demand and supply is the main reason for the slumping milk prices. The Chinese dairy industry has witnessed high fluctuations in prices in recent years because it is still in transition - from free-range to large-scale farming - and yet to recover from the melamine-tainted baby formula scandal involving the Sanlu Group in 2008.

Besides, the rapid rise in imports of dairy products last year, in contrast to the sagging demand for other products at home, has also dealt a blow to the domestic dairy farmers. For instance, the country imported nearly 300,000 tons of Ultra-High Temperature processing liquid milk and 100,000 tons of infant formula in 2014 at much lower prices than in the domestic market. This was possible because overproduction caused milk prices to fall in the world markets from March.