MILAN, May 20 (Class Editori) – Italian milk export boom in China (+47.8%) and South Korea (+88.9%) at least, according to the Italian Committee of the International Dairy Federation (FIL-IDF), compiling the statistics with the support of Fondazione Invernizzi and the collaboration of Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, ahead of World Milk Day coming this June, 1st.
"Milk production and consumption split the whole world in half. Asia tops the world chart as producer, meeting 30% of world demand – closely followed by EU countries (28%), North and Central America (18%), and South America, Africa and Oceania," said Luciano Negri, president of the FIL-IDF Italian Committee. "Then, China is the forerunner of such positive consumption results in Asia for the milk and dairy sectors, where Italian milk imports grew up 47.8% between 2017 and 2018, equal to a +35% economic value".
"According to FAO, there are more than 750 million people around the world employed in the milk industry, producing 843 million tons in 2018 alone – a +2.2% against 2017," said Lorenzo Morelli, Professor of Microbiology and Head of the School of Food Sciences and Technologies at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, in Piacenza-Cremona.
Italian milk consumption is increasing everywhere in Asia. Even South Korea records an all-time high for Italian milk imports, growing up +88.9% in 2018. The region makes for one of Italian milk and dairy sector’s staples, worth around 3.1 billion euro (+3% against 2017) and serving more than 40% of international demand. In 2018, cheese exports alone surpassed 418 thousand tons, for a total value of 2.7 billion euro.
After all, milk and dairies dominate Italian food production as it is, boasting 15.9 billion euro in turnover – 3 billion of which straight from the international market – despite the negative trend registered in 2018, with a 3.8% drop in volume.
Among the factors contributing in Italian milk diffusion in China, last year Centrale del Latte d’Italia (CLI) – third Italian producer of UHT milk – strengthened its strategic partnership with Alibaba, and entered the new retail reality full force.
The group, top sector player in North and Central Italy, managed to have its brands reach China's large distribution through two important chains – Hema and RT-Mart – as well as to open its first online flagship store on Tmall – Alibaba’s biggest B2C e-commerce platform, allowing access to a potential market of 576 million active consumers every year.
CLI's new virtual shop sells Chinese consumers a variety of Mukki-branded products, including UHT milk in different formats, and cooking cream for confectionery. After signing the agreement in October 2017, CLI achieved products sales for over 1.5 million liters. In total, the group's exports tripled, going from 944 thousand euro from September 30th, 2017, to 3 million by the end of 2018.
Thus milk is confirmed as Chinese families' favorite food produce, as well as the one they buy the most online. On the occasion of the world's biggest online shopping event in the world – the Singles Day, held by Alibaba on November 11th, 2018 – CLI sold over 100 thousand of Mukki-branded milk bottles.
After earning profits for over 180 million euro in 2018, the group is now set on achieving 10% of its yearly turnover in China alone by 2020.
(Source:Class Editori)
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