Inner Mongolia lays out plan to solve milk shortage

The Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the biggest source of raw milk in China, will carry out a series of measures to tackle its recent milk shortage.

The key measure in the plan will replace the current supply system, which is based on individual milk farmers, by creating milk farms that are owned by large dairy companies, said Hohhot Mayor Qin Yi during a panel discussion among delegates from the Inner Mongolia autonomous region at the annual sessions of the 12th National People's Congress in Beijing.

Hohhot, where two of the largest dairy companies - Yili Industrial Group Co Ltd and Mengniu Dairy Co Ltd - are based, accounts for one-third of the raw milk in Inner Mongolia.

"By 2017, 70 percent of the raw milk supply from major dairy producers in Inner Mongolia will be from their own milk farms," Qin said.

Importing more productive breeds of cows and exploring overseas raw milk sources will be two other measures to stabilize supply and prices, said Qin.

Since September 2013, major dairy producers in Inner Mongolia, facing a rapidly shrinking raw milk supply, have had to raise dairy prices by 5 to 20 percent in the domestic market, partly because individual milk farmers were quitting their businesses.