Belt and Road CEO Visions: Chinese dairy giant taps into overseas markets

World
Europe

By CGTN’s Martina Fuchs‍

Under the international outlook of the Belt and Road Initiative, China’s second biggest dairy producer, Mengniu Group, is reshaping its products to fit into highly differentiated overseas markets.

“It’s time to increase our capability to compete in a global market, but at the same time, going to countries outside of China is also a challenge, particularly from a cultural perspective,” says Lu Minfang, CEO of Mengniu.

That’s how Mengniu realized it has to work with people from overseas markets to develop its business and products for local consumers.

“Mengniu would go into the market to understand exactly what local consumers like, and also to understand the taste, for example, South East Asia consumers like it a bit sweeter,” said Lu.

Besides flavors and tastes, Mengniu is also looking to dig into varied product categories to accurately get a market share in other countries.

The biggest dairy producer in Europe, Arla Foods, has become Mengniu’s second biggest shareholder and is running a joint R&D center with Mengniu. /VCG Photo

The Belt and Road Initiative grants Mengniu a big opportunity to build a better connection with consumers in the Belt and Road countries and with those in China, as they will share the same quality standards for dairy products.

With certain Chinese dairy producers embroiled in scandals over tainted milk or formulas in recent years, Mengniu is focusing on what it believes is its biggest value creation – high quality products.

“It is still very hard for Chinese consumers to find products with very good quality. And today Mengniu has developed very robust upstream farms to bring the highest quality products to our consumers,” said Lu.