Soon-to-be-released report from USDEC details the escalation of Chinese cheese imports and consumption in recent years.

China's appetite for imported UHT milk could more than quadruple from 2013 to 2020.

Dairy consumption will continue to grow in China, the world's single largest buyer of dairy products.

U.S. suppliers have an opportunity to play a bigger role in China’s booming UHT milk market.

The Food and Drug Administration asks for the following information.  

Rising income and rapid urbanization are two of the reasons outlined in USDEC report. 

It could increase infant formula consumption by as much as 10 percent.  

China’s appetite for imported UHT milk could grow four-fold to more than 1.3 billion lbs. by 2020.

In the last three years, China has become the world’s largest single dairy importer—by far—purchasing more than twice as much as runner-up Russia. As such, it’s almost impossible to understate the impact of the melamine crisis on the global dairy situation since the fall of 2008.

Media reports about global food inflation have come fast and furious in recent weeks. And while there certainly are reasons to be concerned that continued price hikes will cause budding dairy consumers in emerging markets to temper their buying habits, there is also evidence that the developing world has come to accept that dairy in the diet doesn’t come on the cheap.

In late November, more than two years after China issued a blanket recall of all domestically manufactured dairy products in an attempt to choke off its melamine scandal, Chinese authorities found yet another batch of products—this time a corn-flavored dairy beverage—with excessive levels of melamine.

There’s a general pattern to how cultures new to dairy take up the products—a learning curve of acceptance. It goes something like this: milk powder to fluid milk to yogurt to cheese. China is nearing the cheese stage.

Signs of global economic recovery have been slowly, but steadily emerging for the past six months. Certainly no one would say we are safely out of the woods—the recent Greek financial crisis being the latest threat to stability. But on a world scale, news reports of GDP growth are encouraging.

China is in the midst of an extensive food regulatory overhaul prompted by its 2008 melamine scandal. The sweeping government program enhances supervision, toughens safety standards, creates a product recall system, cracks down on food additives, severely punishes offenders and establishes China’s first national food safety commission.