Maeil Dairy moves on

摘要

Following a period of rapid expansion in the 1980s and 1990s, South Korea's dairy market has slowed in recent years, prompting leading dairy companies to increase their export drive and to diversify business activities by developing related food, juice and other opportunities. Competition among dairy companies remains brisk, however, as leading producers try to exploit new consumer trends. New drinking yogurts continue to be launched to tempt the young female market, while the growing popularity of healthy food is encouraging development of functional milk drinks aimed at different age groups. South Korea's dairy industry is highly concentrated. It involves 23 dairy companies and about 45 processing plants. Three companies - Seoul Dairy, Maeil Dairy Industry and Namyang Dairy Products, dominate the dairy sector and together use more than 70 per cent of the country's total annual milk production of about 2.6 billion litres. Foreign involvement in the South Korean market remains limited and imports of milk products are tightly controlled under a quota system.