China imports Russian raw milk for first time

HARBIN - A tank truck carrying raw milk from Russia passed quarantine inspections in a port in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province earlier this week, marking the first time China has imported Russian raw milk.

This batch of raw milk is produced by a Russian pasture owned by Zhongding Dairy Farming, which is only 25 km away from Dongning Port on the border between China and Russia, and the quarantine clearance for its transportation is completed within three hours.

"It marks a new stage of substantial and in-depth exchanges in agricultural cooperation between China and Russia," said Liu jianbo, project manager of Zhongding's Mudanjiang project.

Liu said the raw milk is cold-chain transported and is processed within seven hours in a factory in the city of Mudanjing to guarantee its quality.

Currently, Zhongding has put into operation a 1,000-head dairy farm in Russia. It plans to build ten 5,000-head dairy farms in the Primorsky region of Russia in the next three to five years with a daily output of 1,000 tons of raw milk.