by Abby Bauer, Associate Editor

Driven by a rising appetite for milk, cheese and yogurt, the Chinese dairy market is expected to double in size by 2019, reaching an estimated $70 billion. With this rate of growth, the Asian country would overtake the United States as the world’s largest dairy market in the next three years.

According to Euromonitor data, China’s dairy market is expected to surpass the United States by 2017. Rising incomes, greater access to grocery stores and growing ownership of home refrigerators are some of the key factors contributing to the upsurge in demand.

China imports have already grown fourfold in the last five years, according to Alan Levitt, vice president of communications with the U.S. Dairy Export Council. “Last year, China accounted for 16 percent of world dairy imports and experienced more growth than many of the other top importing countries combined,” said Levitt.

Euromarketer predicts that half of the world’s new dairy sales between now and 2019 will come from eight markets, with China leading the way. Following China, in order of influence, will be the United States, Brazil, Russia, France, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom.

China’s future growth potential does not stop in the dairy department. A new report from global industrial data and analysis firm IHS Inc. estimates that China could leapfrog the United States and become the largest global economy by 2024. Consumer spending is expected to grow at an annual rate of 7.7 percent and climb from $3 trillion to $11 trillion in the next decade, the report said.

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