Tibetan firm keen to serve nutritious yak milk products in Sri Lanka

• Tibet Treasure of Plateau Yak Dairy Industry Co. Ltd. looking for opportunities for marketing as well as setting up of a plant to serve South Asian health conscious and organic products consumers

Tibet Treasure of Plateau Yak Dairy Industry Co. Ltd. is exploring prospects to introduce world famous and highly nutritious yak milk products in Sri Lanka.

Wu Mingfu, a spokesperson for the company told the Daily FT that Sri Lanka has been identified as high potential growth markets and is working on market and business development opportunities.

Tibet Treasure of Plateau Yak Dairy Industry Co. Ltd. is unique in being the world’s biggest and most modern producer of yak milk and milk products. This position also makes the company a standards setter for the unique product and yak dairy industry which is synonymous with mountainous and picturesque Tibet.

As the world’s most biodiverse and best-protected treasury of ecological and natural resources, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau boasts the cleanest air and water and the expansive natural pasture on the globe. Yaks are kept away from all artificial health hazards, like industrial pollution, agrochemicals and chemical fertiliser used in grass growing.

Main products include Tibetan Yak Milk and Pure Milk, Organic Whole Milk Powder and Yak Milk Infant Formula Milk Powder. 

It also produces a range of Yak milk products such as yoghurt, probiotics tablets and wants to cooperate with an international milk factory to produce yak milk cheese, butter for the international market.

As a leading Chinese agribusiness cited for industrialised agriculture, Treasure of Plateau is not only among the first six infant formula brands recommended by MIIT and China Dairy Industry Association, but also the only certified Southwestern China infant formula brand to date.

“Our products sell very well in the high-end cities of over 20 provinces as well as in Hong Kong, SAR and Taiwan. As sales hit successive new highs annually, Treasure of Plateau has emerged as the world’s hottest-selling yak milk brand,” Wu said. It is sold slightly at a higher premium than ordinary cow milk given its high nutritional and organic values.

Apart from Sri Lanka, Treasure of Plateau, established in 2000, is also in advanced stages of serving European and American markets.

“Given the prospects within South Asia as the region gets more affluent and health conscious and seek more organic products, we are also exploring the feasibility of setting up a plant in Sri Lanka,” the spokesperson Wu added.

“We are looking for overseas agents for yak dairy products and also for overseas partners for the adoption of yaks for which we have a unique scheme. We are also looking for related research institutes to establish international standards of yak milk dairy products and the physical and chemical analysis of yak milk etc,” the spokesperson added.

Treasure of Plateau consolidates upstream and downstream resources to link itself with bases, economic cooperatives, ranchers and yaks and persists in an environment-friendly, green, sustainable and high-value added approach of organic and ecological farming.

In Lhasa, Aba, Huangnan, Gannan and other regions on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau intensively inhabited by yaks, the Company has four demonstrative yak farming and milk processing centres. It sources high quality milk from over 10 million yaks across the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and a total of 100,000 mu of demonstrative grazing ground.

Besides, a demonstrative winter milk preservation centre capable of raising up to 15,000 female yaks is under construction. These facilities contribute to a greater supply network and accommodate all the places of intensive quality milk origins.

“Treasure of Plateau led the drafting of national yak milk product standards. We are now filing for the preparation of more national and even global yak milk production and processing standards for the benefit of a prosperous and well-regulated yak milk product industry,” revealed the spokesperson.

Four yogurt-making strains developed by Treasure of Plateau along with China Agricultural University returned from a Shenzhou 11 manned space cruise last year. The company operates a dedicated research project in collaboration with Sichuan University and Jiangnan University to ensure product parameters seamlessly cater to high-end formula market demand.

“Treasure of Plateau is the first in the world to pass yak milk infant formula powder safety assessment. In a newly-weaned SPF SD rat experiment conducted by Sichuan University’s School of Public Health, researchers found Treasure of Plateau infant formula proved better than other famous Chinese infant formula brands in terms of contribution to infant development,” the spokesperson said.

The company has achieved several honours and certifications including CO organic certification; USDA organic certification; EU organic pasture certification; GMP certification; HACCP system certification; ISO9001 quality management systems certification; ISO14001 environmental management systems certification and Integrity management system certification.

Fast facts about Yak

•  Dubbed “Boat on the Plateau”, yaks are a mammal species found at the highest altitudes in the world. As the only stock bovines in the world, they inhabit primarily the frigid Himalayas and the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which lie 3,000-5,000m above sea level. Yaks can withstand down to -30—-40℃ and climb up to 6,400m-high glaciers.
•  So far the yak has not been genetically modified. It is referred to as “One of the three extant stock animals in the world” along with the penguin and the polar bear. A stock animal has never been and cannot be improved. The current yaks are physiologically and genetically identical to their ancestors, so yak milk is not genetically tainted. The milk of stock animals is more easily absorbed by the human body because it is enriched with naturally-structured nutrients.
•  In Tibetan Buddhist philosophy man and nature are considered to be a harmonious unity. Tibetan ranchers hold nature in awe and pay due respects to yaks. They are left to be fertilised without artificial intervention and give birth and lactate naturally. Yaks lactate only in the suckling period; therefore, their milk tastes highly enriched and is very high in nutrition.
•  The high altitudes and long sunshine hours on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau help block pathogenic microorganisms from entry. Yaks feed on wild pasture and drink glacial water, so there is no fodder pollution. Tibetan ranchers keep to age-old practice by grazing yaks on natural pasture. As induced lactation or mechanical milking is not adopted, there are no drug residues, e.g. antibiotics and hormones. Yak milk is absolutely organic food you can depend on.
•  Because yaks live on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which is dubbed “the World’s Third Pole”, they develop extraordinary immunity and resistance to cold, shortage of oxygen, fatigue and radiation. Yaks seldom contract disease. These traits are represented in yak milk and handed down from generation to generation.
•  There are some 17 million yaks in the world, but only seven million or so can produce milk. What’s more, a yak produces as little milk as 1-2kg per day, around 1/10 of a common cow. Approximately 95% of the yaks live in China and 5% live in Mongolia, Central Asian areas of the former Soviet Union, India, Bhutan, Sikkim, Afghanistan and Pakistan.