China's camel milk industry development analysis and product quality improvement prospects

From November 29th to 30th, the 28th Annual Conference of China Dairy Industry Association and the 2022 China (International) Dairy Economic Development Forum with the theme of "For Sustainable Human Healthy Life" were successfully held
.
Leaders from relevant ministries and commissions of the state, scientists in the field of food, senior experts in the dairy industry, representatives of domestic and international dairy industry organizations, production enterprises, scientific research, colleges and universities, relevant service organizations and media attended the meeting
.

As one of the forums of this annual meeting, 8 industry experts made special milk special video reports on sheep's milk, camel milk, yak milk, buffalo milk, yellow milk, etc.
, and the online data of the special milk forum showed that 312,000 people watched
online.

Among them, Liu Youmin, general manager of Yili Yilite Dairy Co.
, Ltd.
, was invited to make a special video report on "Analysis and Quality Improvement of China's Camel Milk Industry" for the forum, which was well received
by the organizers and industry colleagues.
In an interview, Liu Youmin said that the three stages show the historical meridians of the development of
camel milk in China.

As a long-established dairy manufacturer, it started in 1958 and has a history
of 64 years.
Relying on the group's own 280,000 mu of ecological organic pastures, the quality and taste of pure camel milk powder have won unanimous praise
from consumers.
The product is rich in nutrition and contains protein, vitamins and a variety of minerals, which is a nutritional choice
for families in the new era.
Based on the 64-year history of special milk development, Liu Youmin comprehensively focused on the three stages
of camel milk development in China in the report.

The first stage: Before 2015, most camel milk was limited to the herders of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia to eat it themselves, and occasionally a few enterprises made it into yogurt or milk powder, but it was only sold in the region, not to the whole country
.

The second stage: In 2015, the domestic goat milk powder reached its peak, the infant powder formula registration was about to be implemented, the milk powder industry was facing rectification, some customers began to look for transformation products, camel milk with its unique nutritional value and functional characteristics into the sight of these customers
.
In the second half of 2018, second-class e-commerce began to vigorously promote camel milk, and camel milk powder frequently appeared on major second-class e-commerce platforms, attracting great attention
from consumers.
At the end of 2019, the sales of camel milk powder reached an unprecedented peak, the camel milk industry entered a period of rapid growth, and the number of camel farmed increased from 280,100 before 2015 to 405,300
.

The third stage: At the beginning of 2020, the new crown epidemic swept the country, the development of the camel milk industry passively braked, after that, although it still maintained an upward trend, but the development rate slowed down significantly, at the end of 2020, the number of camel breeding continued to maintain a growth momentum, reaching a peak
of 411,200.

Liu Youmin analyzed the development potential of the domestic camel milk market in the report:

In 2022, at the National "Two Sessions", the Party Central Committee proposed to "establish a big food concept" and "ask for food from forests, rivers, lakes and seas, and food from facility agriculture
.
" "Asking plant animal microbes for calories and protein
.
" The proposal of the "Big Food View" is not only an accurate judgment of the development trend of China's food industry, but also provides important theoretical support and policy guidance for the future innovation and development of the whole industry, which is also an important historical opportunity period
for the development of China's food industry 。 Therefore, the starting point and foothold of establishing the "big food view", and in this context, conforming to the trend of changes in the food structure of the people, firmly grasping the new round of development opportunities in the food industry, taking the road of high-quality innovation and development, accelerating the improvement of the scientific and technological innovation ability of healthy food, and providing consumers with safer, more diverse nutritional food will be the development responsibility and direction of the dairy industry in the future.

With the improvement of China's residents' living standards and health awareness, the pursuit of healthier and more nutritious functional food has become an inevitability, camel milk because of its unique nutritional value and functional characteristics just meet the needs of consumers, people's health has a greater promotion effect, therefore, the development prospects of camel milk can be expected
in the future.

Domestic milk powder is basically close to the era of oligarchy, and several milk powder giants represented by Feihe and Junlebao occupy the main market share, and it is even more difficult
for small manufacturers and small brands to occupy a place.
Although goat milk powder has been recognized by most consumers after more than ten years of rapid development, in the past two years, it has obviously lacked novelty, weak growth, confusion and confusion are unavoidable topics, and the market urgently needs a "new and peculiar" dairy product to fill this demand
.
Camel milk came into being, just to meet the needs of the market and ushered in new business opportunities
.

Inner Mongolia Agricultural University and other institutions of higher learning and scientific research institutions continue to study camel milk, CCTV, local satellite TV, Sankei media and other authoritative media have repeatedly carried out popular science reports on camel milk, and the credibility of camel milk has been improved, which has promoted the sunrise development
of camel milk industry.

When talking about the problems existing in the current development of the camel milk market, Liu Youmin said:

First, the scale is small, the collection is difficult, and the milk production is small
.
Although there are more than 2 million peaks of Bactrian camels in the world, but only more than 400,000 camels in China, and only distributed in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and other desert grassland areas, camels are basically nomads, breeding areas are scattered, small scale has become a key factor limiting the development of camel milk industry, in addition, camels do not cooperate with milking work like cows, female camels only smell the smell of young camels, will secrete milk, and each milking time is very short, 2-3 times a day, THE MILK PRODUCTION OF A CAMEL IS ABOUT 2.
5-3.
5KG
PER DAY.
Due to the small number, difficult collection and small milk production, large-scale breeding of camels still takes time
.

Second, there is a lack of national standards, and the market is disorderly and fierce
.
Camel milk industry in 2019 has achieved rapid development, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and other places of milk powder processing enterprises have swarmed, have joined the camel milk powder industry, so that camel breeding industry has developed rapidly, but also driven local herdsmen to increase income and become rich, to some extent to save many small milk powder enterprises on the verge of bankruptcy, but at the same time there are a lot of chaos, small production enterprises scattered, chaotic, poor phenomenon exposed, brands are flying all over the sky, just like the goat milk powder of that year, although the local government also has local standards introduced, However, there are still some enterprises that are playing the edge and doing illegal things, and disorderly competition makes formal enterprises face greater pressure
.

Third, the breeding technology is limited, and the core competitiveness of the brand is not enough
.
At present, China's camel breeding is in a critical period of industrial transformation and upgrading, the level of camel breeding and processing in various regions is uneven, the production efficiency of camel breeding is still not ideal, consumers' cognition is limited, and the reliable industry brand advantage has not yet been established, therefore, how to rely on science and technology, improve the scientific and technological content of camel milk products, improve the core competitiveness of camel milk, build a well-known brand in the camel milk industry, and establish an industry quality model, will become the focus and direction of our next attention and efforts in the whole industry chain of camel milk
。

Regarding the improvement of the high quality of camel milk products, Liu Youmin said;

First, we must promote the introduction of
national standards for camel milk as soon as possible.
Although Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia have local standards, but there is still a certain gap between the authority and influence of local standards and national standards, once the national standard is introduced, it unifies the production and quality standards of camel milk powder, in a sense, it is to correct the name of camel milk, which is of great significance
to promote the development of the industry.

Second, we should strengthen industry self-discipline and promote the healthy development of
the industry.
Before the state has not introduced the national standard, the enterprises in the camel milk industry chain must also strengthen enterprise self-discipline, strictly implement local standards, abandon the idea of marginalization and speculation, reduce costs from improving enterprise management and internal control, and benefit the people, rather than vicious competition from the reduction of quality, infringing on consumer rights and interests, damaging the reputation of the industry, and hindering the healthy development of
the industry.

Third, we should promote the implementation of various breeding policies and promote the high-quality development of
the camel industry.
Although the camel milk industry has developed rapidly in recent years, but the number of camel breeding is still relatively small, obviously can not keep up with the speed of market development, although there is the spirit of the central government high-level speech, there is the local government's policy guidance, there are also different animal breeding support policies, but the actual implementation of the local herdsmen's breeding policy and financial support, is far from enough, some are only limited to theoretical, or the setting conditions are too high, can not land, in the long run, will inevitably lead to some small enterprises in order to meet market demand, opportunistic to reduce product quality
.
Therefore, it is also necessary for all sectors of society to jointly promote the implementation of camel breeding policies, and give policy preferences in subsidies and loans such as standardized camel breeding and mechanized milking; Increase special scientific research investment in camel seed resource protection, variety improvement, production performance improvement, product research and development, etc.
, consolidate the foundation, and inject new momentum
into the high-quality development of camel industry.

Fourth, we should strengthen the research on the nutrition and efficacy of camel milk and improve the scientific and technological content of
camel milk products.
For a long time, the nutritional value and functional characteristics of camel milk have been recognized a lot at the consumer level, but some of the efficacy is still not supported by the clinical research results of authoritative institutions, and some companies arbitrarily exaggerate the efficacy or therapeutic effect of camel milk, resulting in some consumers doubting the actual nutritional value of camel milk, and the reputation of camel milk has declined
。 If we can be led by industry associations and actively participate in the whole industry chain of camel milk, we can unite with some authoritative research institutions or hospitals to strengthen basic research on camel milk, carry out clinical research and trials, and come up with the most authoritative research results to prove the uniqueness and efficacy of camel milk, which will greatly improve the credibility of camel milk efficacy and play a very positive role in promoting the entire industry
.

Liu Youmin said that for now, camel milk products are dazzling, a wide variety, but most of them are not innovative, no differentiation, homogenization is serious, really have technical content, there are few products with obvious differentiation, enterprises invest very little energy in product research and development, product competition is mainly reflected in the primary level of price, but if an enterprise wants to open the gap with the industry, first of all, it must open the gap with the industry in products, and improve the core competitiveness with differentiated products, only in this way, the enterprise will develop faster, To go further, and in order to go faster and further, enterprises need to invest certain manpower, material and financial resources in scientific research and innovation, promote innovation drive, increase investment in product innovation, strengthen innovation collaboration in the whole industry chain, accelerate technological innovation and application, continuously provide high-quality products and services, meet the diversified health needs of consumers, lead the development of scientific and technological innovation in the industry, and achieve comprehensive value leadership
.

In short, camel milk as a new type of health special milk, with its unique nutritional value and functional characteristics, in the growing demand for health products in our residents will play an increasingly important role, its development potential and prospects are unanimously optimistic, but how to achieve camel industry scale effect, industrial agglomeration effect and brand synergy effect, promote the high-quality development of camel milk industry, provide protection for the health of Chinese residents, and contribute to economic and social development, both government support and industry associations lead, It is more necessary for enterprises in the whole industry chain to participate together and work the scale and standardization of camel breeding
.
Starting from itself, strictly in accordance with the standards, strengthening enterprise self-discipline, improving product quality as the first priority, and improving the scientific and technological content and core competitiveness of products as the golden key to achieve enterprise take-off, only in this way, the camel milk industry will develop faster and better
.

Liu Youmin hopes that the industry will join hands to exert synergy and warm up as a group, and make unremitting efforts
to promote the healthy and sustainable development of the camel milk industry.

(Wang Jingchen)

Preliminary review: Li Song Responsible editor: Xiao Zhihan Review: Ouyang Meihua