WisBusiness: Chinese appetite for whey growing

By Brian E. Clark
WisBusiness.com

The Chinese may not have much of an appetite for cheese, but there is a huge market in the People’s Republic for whey – a key source of protein – Gov. Jim Doyle told a state Dairy Business Association meeting today in Middleton.

Doyle said he’s launching a $10 million “whey initiative” to help Wisconsin plants invest in new equipment and other upgrades to increase shipments abroad.

Since 2006, he noted, whey exports have increased from $13 million to $37 million. Much of that dairy product is going to China, said Doyle, who has been to Asia a number of times dating back to the 1980s.

In the first half of 2007 alone, he said dairy exports from Wisconsin have increased by 90 percent.

“The door is opening wide for us in China,” he said. “They have discovered the value of whey and protein is in great demand. The possibilities are limitless.”

Doyle’s speech to the DBA – which indorsed him in the last governor’s race – outlined what he called his $33 million “Next Generation Agriculture” plan.

He said the six-part program will move the state’s dairy and agriculture industry forward by providing more money to modernize, innovate “capture new markets and seize new green opportunities.”

Doyle told members of the DBA they will shape Wisconsin’s future, and “it won’t be some attempt to recreat a nostalgic feeling of 80 acres and 40 cows.”

Rather, he said, the state will forge ahead and build on the $500 million in private funds taht have been invested in the industry in the pat few years.

Doyle said dairies will grow responsibly, thanks to siting and new pollution and proposed runoff management rules.

“We want to build on dairy farmers strong conservation ethic to deal with runoff problems,” he said.

Doyle also said he wants dairies to be at the forefront of helping meet Wisconsin’s energy needs.

“We have the resources in fields, forests and farms to be leaders in renewable energy,” he said, lauding Wisconsin as the state with the most anaerobic digesters (20) that in some cases produce energy to run their own operations, nearby homes and even return electricity to the power grid.

Doyle said the state also is home to the globe’s greatest research university, which recently was awarded a $125 million federal grant to do advanced renewable energy research.

“Think of a world where we are not reliant on the Middle East for oil,” she said. “It is the opportunity of a century.”