China, Netherlands strengthen ties in dairy sector

China and the Netherlands are set to deepen exchanges in dairy production, food safety and full-chain management as growing demand for high-quality nutrition creates new opportunities for cooperation between the two countries, industry representatives said.

They made the remarks at the Dutch Dairy Full-Chain Management Seminar held in Beijing last week, where government officials, industry associations, researchers and dairy companies discussed practices covering the entire dairy chain from grass to glass.

The Netherlands has become China's second-largest source of dairy imports, with the value reaching $2.03 billion in 2025. It is also China's largest source of imported infant formula, accounting for 36 percent of the country's total, according to information released at the seminar.

Tsjeard Hoekstra, charge d'affaires at the Netherlands embassy in China, said China is the most important export market for Dutch dairy products outside the European Union.

The Dutch dairy industry's competitiveness is supported by its "From Grass to Glass" model, which integrates quality and food safety management across farming, raw milk collection, transportation, processing and finished-product inspection.

Kenneth van Halewijn, market access manager at the Dutch Dairy Association, said the industry's full-chain management system combines government supervision, industry coordination and independent testing.

The association represents 13 major dairy companies and covers about 98 percent of milk processed in the Netherlands.

Ren Fazheng, dean of department of Nutrition and Health at China Agricultural University in Beijing, said the dairy sector has a particularly long industrial chain involving numerous production stages, making coordination and risk control especially important.

He said the Netherlands' full-chain management experience offers useful reference for the high-quality development of China's food industry.

Dutch dairy producer FrieslandCampina has applied the model throughout its production system. The company is owned by a cooperative of more than 15,000 dairy farmers, accounting for about 70 percent of dairy farms in the Netherlands.

Sean Zhang, managing director of specialized nutrition China at FrieslandCampina, said the company's Friso products are subject to more than 3,000 analyses across the production chain, covering farms, raw milk, transportation and factory production.

More than 2,000 analyses are completed before production begins, he said.

Participants at the seminar also launched a cooperation initiative aimed at strengthening exchanges in full-chain dairy management and promoting safer, higher-quality and more nutritious dairy products.