China is seeking to step up its investment in Australia's dairy industry amid growing domestic demand and rising import prices, a senior Australian industry representative says.
Dairy Industry's international trade development manager, Peter Myers, said increased demand along with higher prices for imported dairy and food safety concerns have prompted China to look at investing in Australia.
"It would be a matter of time before we see significant Chinese investment because Chinese companies are very, very interested in securing supply of dairy product for infant formula, in particular - also for drinking milk," Mr Myers said.
China's dairy industry has been plagued by issues of food security and safety, with scandals surrounding the production of infant formula leading to infant deaths and illness.
Mr Myers says there is strong interest in investment from Chinese companies.
"There have been examples of investment at the farm level and we are aware and have had many investment delegations, missions, companies coming down to Australia looking at opportunities to invest into manufacturing as well," he told AAP during an industry promotion seminar.
China is the world's largest single national importer of dairy goods and its dairy market is the fastest growing in the world.
"Every city has coffee shops, everywhere you go, as well as fast food restaurants, and all these are driving demand for cheese or for dairy products in general," Mr Myers said.
Australia's dairy exports to greater China in 2014-15 stood at $424 million, accounting for 15 per cent of all global dairy exports from Australia.
Australia's major export market is Southeast Asia, accounting for 35 per cent of global exports worth $1.022 billion.
"China is the world's largest importer of dairy as a single market, and we believe it's got a long way to go yet in terms of growth as economic growth continues," Mr Myers said.
