The China Dairy Industry Association honored Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, with the title of "Dairy City of

China" here Sunday for its fast growth in this industry.

Situated on a plateau at the edge of the Mongolian grasslands, some 425 km. northwest of Beijing, Hohhot is rich in agricultural and livestock resources such as wool, meat, milk and herbs with great development potential.

Hohhot initiated the strategy of "developing the city by developing the dairy industry" in 2000 and outlined the plan in 2002 to build "Dairy City of China".

By the end of 2004, the city reported 504,000 heads of dairy cattle with 1.59 million tons of milk output, or 615 kg per capita, topping all the other provincial capital cities and municipalities in China.

In the first seven months this year, the city boasted 582,000 heads of dairy cattle with 1.36 million tons of milk output, indicating a yearly rise of 37.9 percent and 51.1 percent respectively.

The dairy industry of the city was also boosted by two national dairy businesses, the Yili Group and the Mengniu Group.

In 2004, Yili reported a total sales volume of 8.73 billion yuan (1.08 billion US dollars), and Mengniu reported 7.21 billion yuan (0.89 billion US dollars), ranking the first and second places in the dairy industry of China.

"Hohhot will make great efforts to defend the title of 'Dairy City of China' and with this title, to enter the world market as soon as possible," said Tang Aijun, mayor of the city.

Source: Xinhua