China's US$150b dining out scene draws foreign dairy firms

Shanghai

IN AN industrial kitchen in a leafy, residential suburb of central Shanghai, a quiet culinary evolution is taking place.

Beside shelves stacked with butter mounds the size of bread loaves and 5kg cheese wheels, chefs are experimenting with exotic ingredients that their New Zealand supplier, Fonterra Cooperative Group, wants to become ubiquitous in China: dairy.

While commonplace in Western diets, cream, cheese and butter are seldom used in commercial Chinese kitchens. Dairy exporters are working to change that.

Dutch dairy cooperative Royal Friesla…