HCM City (VNA) - Vietnam’s dairy market is predicted to double in size by 2020, reaching 8.2 billion USD as the population is expected to increase by five million anddairy consumption to rise by a compounded annual growth rate of 7 percent.

Thedairy industry targets producing 2.6 billion litres of milk by 2020, said Tong Xuan Chinh, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’sDepartment of Livestock Production.

Domesticraw milk production is projected to reach one billion litres to serve 38 percentof total demand by 2020, Chinh said at a Beef and Dairy Livestock Asiaconference recently held in HCM City.

Dairyconsumption per capita is projected to rise from 20 litres to 27 litres of milkper person per year by 2020.

Thetargets are achievable due to improved income, rapid urbanization and higherattention to nutrition of the children and the elderly, Chinh said.

Domesticdairy companies have expanded their production capacity of both raw milk anddairy products, while high technologies have been adopted in the raising ofdairy cows and processing of milk.

Chinhsaid that national systems for breeding and quality control for raw milk anddairy products should be established.

Thereis also a need to improve processing technologies at household and farm levelsas well as processing of forage and agro-industry byproducts for cattle feed.

Industrialconcentrated dairy farming using high-tech methods should be developed to lay afoundation for the dairy processing industry, Chinh said.

From2011 to 2016, the dairy industry grew at an annual rate of 16.6 percent.

In2015, the dairy market was valued at 4.1 billion USD, with powdered milk andliquid milk the bestselling products, accounting for 66 percent of value share.

Domesticraw milk production, however, has been able to fulfill only 30 percent ofconsumption demand.

Foreignproducers provide 60-65 percent of powdered milk demand in Vietnam, while 50 percentof the sale value of powdered milk is from imported products.

Foreigncompanies are the major supplier of cheese, accounting for 70-90 percent of thevolume consumed in Vietnam.

Lastyear, the number of milk cows reached a total of 283,000, with milk productiontotaling 800,000 tonnes. The number of meat cows was estimated at 5.2 millionheads.

SoutheastAsian markets for beef and live cattle are growing and maturing, said AllisterLugsdin, a representative of Meat & Livestock Australia.

Vietnamremains a major market for Australian beef exports as well as technology exchangein livestock production.

Australiaplans to continue to supply healthy beef, as well as breeding and feeder andslaughter cattle to Southeast Asia, the representative said.

Morethan 40 domestic and Australian companies took part in the two-day conferenceand exhibition, which showcased modern technologies in livestock management,traceability and control of abattoirs, feedlots and breeding.

The event was organised by the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development’s Department of Livestock Production incoordination with Meat & Livestock Australia.-VNA