China’s dairy industry demonstrated an unprecedented level of development at the World Dairy Innovation Awards 2026. Based on the assessment of the global expert jury, several leading Chinese companies achieved decisive victories in key product categories.

The dominance of Asian brands highlights the profound transformation of the sector: Chinese enterprises are successfully moving beyond classic production of standard milk towards creating unique food products with sophisticated functional formulations.

Within the awards results, the following products from China were recognised as the best in their respective niches:

• Best Artisan Product: Gonglao’s Hulunbuir Strain Milk Skin Yogurt, a yogurt with a thick creamy “milk skin” foam, developed by the biotechnology team of Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial.

• Best Cheese: Feihe Angus Beef Cheese, a specialised lactose‑free cheese with added natural beef, produced by China Feihe.

• Best Dessert: Suibian Crispy! Lava ice cream, featuring a complex texture of chocolate and crispy beads, produced by Mengniu Dairy.

• Best Dairy Snack: Milkground Cheese Nuts Crisps, a nutritious crunchy cheese snack with cashew nuts and pumpkin seeds, created by the innovative company Shanghai Milkground Food Tech.

For Chinese manufacturers and exporters of food products, the outcome of this awards programme is a powerful marketing tool for expansion into international markets, including Russia and CIS countries.

The victory of such unconventional formats as meat‑enriched lactose‑free cheese or crunchy cheese snacks indicates a global trend toward complex functional snacking. Russian retail chains are currently actively expanding their shelves dedicated to ready‑to‑eat meals and health‑oriented snacks.

Chinese plants can leverage their proven status as global innovators to conclude direct contracts with federal retail chains in Russia, offering exclusive high‑margin dairy product lines that currently have no direct equivalents among local suppliers.