China's Online Dairy Q1 2024: UHT Milk and Cheese Diverge

Newer data: China's Dairy Market: Online Sales Hit CN¥ 44.7B in 2025

Executive Summary#

China's online dairy market in Q1 2024 tells two contrasting stories ^[1]. UHT milk is a concentrated, mature category in which sales sit with large domestic dairy groups and a small number of best-selling whole-case packs. Cheese, by contrast, is a fragmented and still-emerging category in which regional specialty brands such as Western Queen and imported brands such as Anchor are building fast-growing niches. The two categories also sell through different channels, and we believe the data shows that brands need a strategy for each product type, since one approach applied across all of dairy fits neither.

UHT Milk: A Concentrated Market Sold Through Logistics-Led Channels#

UHT milk is a high-volume, logistics-intensive product that consumers buy in bulk and on replenishment, so its online sales concentrate in channels built for efficient delivery of heavy goods and for whole-case value. These include supermarket-style stores and stores operated by the marketplaces themselves, alongside content-led commerce. The bulk-purchase nature of liquid dairy suits the mechanics of supermarket channels far better than milk powder does, which is bought in smaller, higher-value units.

Cross-border channels account for a negligible share of UHT milk sales, because domestic production and logistics carry the category. This is a structural barrier for imported brands that want to sell liquid milk online without first setting up local fulfilment operations.

Premium Lines Grow Within a Mature UHT Category#

UHT milk is concentrated among large domestic dairy groups, and in this mature, repeat-purchase category the whole-case value pack remains the format that drives volume, with whole-case pure milk packs still growing among established products.

The premium tier is where the faster growth sits, since among the best-selling UHT products, premium organic and provenance-led lines grew faster than lower-priced alternatives. Oriental Selection Desert Pure Milk, a new product priced at CN¥ 88.28, nearly double the average UHT milk price, is built on a desert-origin provenance story told through content-driven commerce. We believe it shows that content-led channels can support premium pricing when the product story resonates with consumers.

Cheese: A Fragmented Market With Room to Grow#

The online cheese segment is at a much earlier stage. China's cheese consumption remains below 0.3 kg per capita a year, compared with over 15 kg in Europe, which points to substantial room for growth ^[2]. Sales are spread thinly across channels and no single store format concentrates the category, which reflects cheese's nature as a discovery purchase, where browsing and content-led channels compete effectively with logistics-focused ones.

Cheese is still a small category in absolute terms, which reflects its emerging place in China's dairy consumption, and cross-border channels play almost no part in it.

Three Clusters Take Shape in Cheese#

The best-selling cheese products fall into three distinct clusters, and each has its own route to the consumer.

Regional specialty brands use provenance on content-led channels. Western Queen sells a range of three Xinjiang-origin products: a milk curd yogurt stick, a prebiotic cheese block and a camel milk curd. The brand uses its regional provenance and the content-discovery format of short-video commerce to reach consumers looking for authentic, origin-driven dairy products.

Children's cheese sticks are maturing as an established segment. Children's cheese sticks are the most established part of the online cheese category. In Q1 2024 the segment showed the signs of a maturing market, with premium branded products sold alongside the value-oriented regional ranges.

Imported brands find traction through self-operated fulfilment. Anchor, from New Zealand, sells imported mozzarella shredded cheese and light cream, both new listings, through stores operated by the marketplaces themselves. We believe its approach shows that imported cheese brands can reach Chinese consumers through that fulfilment model.

Prices range from CN¥ 31.34 for Western Queen's yogurt stick to CN¥ 148.56 for Milkground's Paw Patrol assortment, which indicates that value-oriented regional products and premium branded children's cheese coexist in the market.

Key Takeaways#

• UHT milk is a concentrated, mature category: large domestic dairy groups account for most of the best-selling products, and whole-case value packs still drive volume.
• Channel strategies must differ by product type: UHT milk sells through channels built for logistics efficiency and whole-case value, while cheese is a discovery purchase in which browsing and content-led channels compete effectively.
• Premium UHT milk is growing faster than the mass market: premium organic and provenance-led lines grew faster than lower-priced alternatives. New products such as Oriental Selection Desert Pure Milk at CN¥ 88.28 show that the premiumisation trend extends beyond milk powder.
• Cheese is China's next dairy opportunity: its small scale and fragmentation leave openings for brands with strong provenance stories, such as Western Queen's Xinjiang origin, or imported quality signals, such as Anchor's New Zealand positioning.
• Cross-border channels are negligible for both liquid dairy and cheese, which makes domestic fulfilment operations a requirement for reaching the high-volume channels.

About the Data#

This analysis draws on Moojing Market Intelligence's proprietary e-commerce data, covering SKU-level sales revenue, volume and pricing across three leading Chinese marketplaces for Q1 2024 (January to March 2024). Data is aggregated from daily transaction-level records and reported at the monthly and quarterly level. For the complete dataset, including the milk powder market analysis, sub-category breakdowns and best-selling product analysis, download the full report.

Data source: Moojing Market Intelligence