Zebra Consumption Chen Xiaojing
Competition in the dairy industry continues to intensify. High-protein dairy products have emerged in a concentrated manner. The protein content of products has soared from 4.0 grams to 6.0 grams. The industry has begun a new round of product competition.
For top dairy companies, if there is no high-protein product layout, it means a slow response to consumer trends. The implementation of this type of high-protein products essentially relies on the commercialization and popularization of membrane filtration technology.
Our focus is on how companies can dig deeper into the high-protein track and release greater commercial value.
Yili, Mengniu, etc. have continued to explore this segment and have successively launched protein water products, covering segmented scenarios such as fitness, extending protein supplementation from brewing protein powder to drinking protein water.
This trend has also been seized upon by tea and coffee companies. Starbucks has launched high-protein latte, and brands such as Riqi, Coca-Cola’s Fairlife, and Hema have successively launched protein water beverage products.
Dairy companies and cross-border players are competing for the high-protein track, and industry competition has gradually begun.
Dairy companies pile on high protein
The growth of normal-temperature milk has stalled, competition for low-temperature milk has intensified, and amid industry involution, what are the incremental opportunities? Starting from 2025, high protein will become the key layout direction of dairy companies.
The core reason why it is sought after by the industry comes from the “China Food and Nutrition Development Outline (2025-2030)” released early last year.
The outline clearly points out that residents should increase their consumption of high-quality protein foods, and milk is an important source of high-quality protein.
In the past, the national standard for protein content of ordinary pure milk products was greater than 2.9 grams/100 ml. Around 2020, the industry generally raised this standard to 3.3g-3.9g/100ml.
Starting from February 2025, Bright Dairy, Yili, Mengniu Dairy, New Dairy, etc. will focus on the high-protein track.
Among them, Guangming Dairy launched Excellent 5.0 ultra-fresh milk, which uses nanofiltration concentration and ceramic microfiltration membrane processes to increase the protein content in milk to 5.0 g/100 ml, which is nearly twice that of ordinary products. The terminal selling price is nearly 20% higher than the 3.6 g/100 ml product of the same brand.
During the same period, Mengniu launched Daily Fresh Organic A2 fresh milk with a protein content of 4.0 g/100 ml; New Dairy launched a series of champion products with a protein content of 4.2 g/100 ml.
In fact, in the high-protein track, the French brand Yoplait is the pioneer. In 2020, the brand was the first to launch milk containing 4.0 grams of protein per 100 ml in the Chinese market, and in 2023, it launched 5.0 grams of A2β-casein milk. Despite three bosses from General Mills, Tiantu Capital and IDG, Yoplait is still a strong player in this segmented track.
Nowadays, high protein has become a mainstream label in the dairy market, and related products have also begun to extend into cross-border categories.
In April this year, Starbucks China launched the high-protein latte PRO series, which uses 0-lactose milk with a protein content of 6.0 grams/100 ml. The protein content of a single cup (473 ml) is as high as 20 grams, which is equivalent to the protein content of at least 3 eggs, making it a phenomenal coffee product.
This high-protein latte covers multiple drinking scenarios such as breakfast, commuting, afternoon tea and after training, and meets the immediate protein supplement needs of office people and fitness groups.
Yili and Mengniu are also targeting this type of consumption scenario and have launched protein and water products this year. Among them, the Puritime transparent protein water launched by Yili has a whey protein isolate content of 9.0g/300ml.
High protein, not dependent on cows
In addition to low-temperature fresh milk, high-protein solutions are also widely used in the yogurt category, and the protein content of the products continues to increase.
For example, Yili’s Changqing Protein Time Yoghurt product has a protein content of 9 grams/100 grams, and Bright Dairy also has similar products.
All major dairy companies are grabbing the market dividends brought by high protein. The question is, how is high protein achieved?
In fact, even if the management and feeding of Holstein and Juanshan dairy cows are done to the extreme, the protein of native pure milk will reach at most 4.0 g/100 ml in the short term, and the production capacity is very limited. As for the main Holstein cattle, the protein content of dairy products produced from raw milk is difficult to reach the protein level of 4.0 grams for a long time.
Dairy companies can easily launch high-protein dairy products, mainly relying on the commercialization and popularization of membrane filtration technology. This technology was first used in the field of seawater desalination in the 1960s, and has since been widely used in urban sewage treatment.
As the technology matured and costs dropped, the technology began to enter the dairy industry in 2010, but at that time it was mainly used to replace the evaporation process.
In June 2023, New Dairy (002946.SZ) revealed to CCTV that after it introduced membrane filtration equipment, it successively launched milk products with 3.3 grams, 3.6 grams and 3.8 grams of protein per 100 ml. Prior to this, the protein content in its pure milk was generally 3.1 grams/100 ml.
Membrane filtration technology is usually divided into four major types: reverse osmosis, nanofiltration, ultrafiltration and microfiltration based on the diameter of the membrane. When the milk passes through the membrane pipe, the water is diverted from the filter holes, and the remaining part forms concentrated milk. Enterprises can set protein parameters according to their needs, and ultimately form various contents of protein.
Starbucks China’s 6.0g/100ml milk product uses ultrafiltration technology to filter out lactose and ultimately create a high-protein product.
Subject to the technical upper limit, the current membrane filtration process can concentrate the protein content to a standard of 10 grams of protein per 100 ml, which is the current technical ceiling.
Not only do more, but also do more
Dairy companies are vigorously deploying high-protein dairy products. On the one hand, it is due to the industry entering a period of adjustment, and on the other hand, it is due to changes in consumer trends.
At the corporate level, the growth rate of the liquid milk business has slowed down, forcing dairy companies to cultivate new growth engines through product iteration and upgrades.
Taking the industry leader Yili Co., Ltd. (600887.SH) as an example, in 2024, the company’s liquid milk revenue will reach 75.003 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.32%, which is equivalent to over 10 billion yuan less sales than the previous year.
The downward trend continued in 2025, with the company’s liquid milk revenue reaching 70.42 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.11%. It recovered in the first half of 2026, with liquid milk revenue slightly increasing by 1.28% year-on-year.
The performance of Mengniu Dairy’s liquid milk business is generally similar to that of Yili, with revenue falling from 82.071 billion yuan in 2023 to 64.939 billion yuan in 2025. It began to pick up in the first half of this year.
The entire industry is also facing pressure, and the fundamentals of liquid milk have obvious downward characteristics. Worldpanel data shows that domestic dairy sales fell 5.2% year-on-year in the first three quarters of last year.
Behind the cruel market, consumption concepts are changing. The “2025 China Milk Merchants Index Report” shows that consumers’ demand has shifted from “drinking more milk” to “drinking good milk” in the past, and the focus of consumption has shifted from pursuing quantity to focusing on quality.
The heads of leading dairy companies have said on different public occasions that the dairy consumer market is changing from quantitative to qualitative changes, and companies must focus on consumer demand and use protein upgrades as the driving force for product innovation.
Currently, high-protein dairy products mostly appear on the low-temperature milk track. Low-temperature products are fresher and closer to the nutritional properties of raw milk. They are an important track for dairy companies to build a second curve.
New dairy industry relies on low-temperature milk to break out of the industry, Guangming Dairy’s basic market is low-temperature milk, Junlebao’s Yuexianhuo is betting on this track, and companies such as Sanyuan Shares are also making efforts, whether low-temperature pure milk or low-temperature yogurt, etc., all with the core selling point of “freshness”.
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