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In the space of less than a generation, the Chinese people has changed greatly in the quality of their lives. The averages of all types have risen – income, consumption, education, etc, etc. The consumer spending patterns, ie the proportion of total consumer spending, have changed a lot too. As incomes have grown, a greater proportion of food expenditure has been allocated to highly processed or prepared foods away from home. Along with changes in consumption patterns, the Chinese people have experienced a huge change in their food consumption and diets.

Much has been written in recent years on rapidly changing diets of consumers in China, more particularly in urban areas but also in rural areas. In general, urban consumers have increased the proportion of calories in their diets come from fat animal protein, reduced carbohydrate intake and increased consumption of sugar and vegetable oils.

It was really clear what was holding demand for dairy products. One possible explanation could have been "different tastes associated with contact with international historic patterns consumption. "Traditionally, most Chinese have considered milk as a nutritious food supplement, especially for children and the elderly, but the general population did not receive milk as a food for daily consumption. In fact, fresh milk in 1950, a substantial proportion of the Chinese never tried.

Since the mid-1990s, however, the lethargy of the dairy sector in China has disappeared. The demand, especially in urban areas has skyrocketed. Between 1997 and 2003, milk production growth accelerated to about 20 percent. Added output rose more than 18 million tons in 2003, a level that China ranked seventh in the world in production of cow's milk and eighth in total milk production.

What are the reasons, whereas for this increasingly prominent phenomenon of the popularity and rapid growth in consumption of milk products since mid-1990? It seems to be the result of the convergence of several mutually reinforcing factors.

First, economic growth in the past two decades has, as mentioned above, a shift in consumer preferences in urban areas to the meat, vegetable oils, fruits and dairy products. However, income alone alone can not explain the magnitude of increase in demand for dairy products in the 1990s.

Secondly, changes in consumer perceptions milk products as a result of simultaneous joint effort undertaken by the government, the health sector and the dairy industry, to encourage greater consumption dairy products. The task was to convey the message that the benefits of regular consumption of dairy products are not just for children, the elderly and the sick. The school milk program, for example, that is, the Chinese central government's policy of calling students to drink a cap of milk each day will be promoted in an ever wider regions each year. The commercialization of the media, the expansion of cable television and television property in small towns and rural areas is increasing rapidly, allowing many residents of many small towns in China, cities, and well as richer rural areas, to be in contact with the same messages about the benefits of regular milk consumption.

Moreover, the process of Westernization of calls, mostly from the urban population, led to the imitation of imported nutrition habits of the West as fast food chains and dairy products.

The hectic pace of modern urban life promotes the consumption of prepared and packaged foods, including dairy products. More and more households are buying bigger and better cold, so they will have the ability to store milk and yogurt correctly.

Since the prospects future, the dairy market is likely to continue growing. It is clear that consumption will continue growing rapidly for a number of years. Mr. Huaibao Wang, deputy director of China Association of Dairy Industry, estimated that with the sustained growth of China's economy and improved living standards, China's annual per capita consumption of dairy products will increase to 18 kilograms in 2015. Milk production in the country, meanwhile, will grow at 6.9 percent per year to 25 million tonnes in 2015.