July 12, 2012

Delamere Dairy targets China's growth

As the country's consumers increasingly look to international products, UK dairy supplier Delamere Dairy said it is eyeing further growth in China.

Speaking to just-food at Tuesday's (July 10) Great Yorkshire Show in Harrogate, in the north of the UK, co-founder Liz Sutton said Chinese consumers wanted imported dairy products. Delamere currently distributes its goat's cheese and milk products in China but is hoping to extend that to include other products in its portfolio in the near future.

"Consumers in China are increasingly looking for imported products and they have now turned to Europe as a result of the melamine scandals. They don't even want their packaging in Chinese, they want it to look imported. It is an opportunity for European dairy suppliers to look at, in exporting more mainstream products.

"There are certainly opportunities out there over the next two to three years and there is enough demand to build a dairy farm out there."

The UK dairy sector is dominated by debate over milk prices but Sutton said Delamere is fortunate the base of its portfolio centred on soy and goats milk.

On innovation, the company said it is looking at expanding its soy line further.

"Soy has become a big part of what we do," marketing manager Caroline Horton told just-food. "We feel we have grown goat's milk as much as we can. Most of the NPD coming from us at the present time is in soy. We are hoping to grow further in this market and are hoping to launch some products that are different to what is already out there."