Zhu Yan, editor-in-chief of the Global Network: China's dairy industry ESG indicators have improved significantly in the first half of the year

Source: World Wide Web

[Global Network reporter Xu Na] This year's new crown epidemic has brought a heavy blow to the global dairy industry. Travel is restricted, logistics are blocked, demand is shrinking, and factories are shutting down, but the countless cows in the upper reaches of the dairy supply chain will not stop milking because of the epidemic, but will still be in the months with high milk production. Fresh milk cannot be sold in time, and if the powder is to be stored for a long time, it means that the cost of dairy enterprises is rising and the risk of operation is increasing. In many countries around the world, from North America and Western Europe to Japan and India, in the face of the impact of the epidemic, there has been a phenomenon of dairy companies stopping production or stopping the purchase of milk, forcing dairy farmers to pour milk and kill cattle. In the face of the epidemic test, Chinese dairy enterprises handed over a high-scoring social responsibility answer sheet: using the fastest time to resume work and production to ensure supply, providing important support for winning the epidemic prevention and control battle; in order to safeguard the interests of the majority of dairy farmers, they have achieved "all the harvests that should be collected", and dairy enterprises have shouldered the risk to ensure the health, stability and long-term development of the industrial chain.

In such a socio-economic and industry context, how domestic dairy enterprises can achieve higher quality and more sustainable development has also become a hot topic in the industry.

On September 23, Global Network joined hands with CCX AND Lianhua Shengshi to hold an online dairy forum, inviting industry experts and outstanding enterprise representatives to "look forward to the present and look forward to the future", and talk about the sustainable development of China's dairy industry from the perspectives of scientific and technological innovation, green development, coordinated integration, high-quality development and social responsibility around the perspective of "practicing the ESG concept".

Ms. Zhu Yan, Editor-in-Chief of Global Network and Executive Director of Global Trends Research Institute, attended the forum and delivered a speech, in recent years, China's dairy industry has improved significantly in various indicators of ESG. The optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure has pushed the ESG level of the dairy industry to a higher level. According to incomplete statistics, China's dairy industry donated nearly 7 billion yuan during the epidemic, and the main business sales revenue of the dairy industry in the first half of this year also achieved a year-on-year increase of 4.43%, which was outstanding in various industries of the food industry.

The reason is that Zhu Yan believes that ESG determines the long-term performance of a company is the core values of the enterprise, while ESG can visualize the positive values of the enterprise from various data indicators, and can achieve comparisons between enterprises in the same industry and even between enterprises across industries. For enterprises, the combing of ESG data indicators can also help enterprises find potential crises and shortcomings that hinder long-term development from the dimensions of social external environment, industry supply chain and internal governance of enterprises. As far as investment is concerned, the study shows that companies that meet the ESG evaluation standards have higher resource utilization efficiency and employee management level, strong development and innovation motivation and profitability, more stable performance, stronger risk management capabilities, sound internal control systems, and lower probabilities of legal proceedings and penalties for violations, which help investors avoid risks. In emerging market countries where the relevant policy systems and corporate governance levels need to be improved, the impact of ESG on financial performance is more significant. Therefore, 90% of the world's large multinational companies voluntarily and publicly disclose their ESG performance; international investors also use ESG indicators as the main basis for their long-term investment.

As a media positioned to communicate between China and foreign countries, the Global Network began to focus on and concentrate on the ESG field earlier.

Zhu Yan said: "We have noticed that China's dairy industry has improved significantly in various indicators of ESG in recent years. This is also a series of documents such as the melamine incident and the Hong Kong delisting incident of Huishan Dairy exposing the serious problems in the field of ESG in the industry, led by the State Council and jointly acted by multiple ministries and commissions, and issued a series of documents such as "Work Plan for Promoting the Merger and Reorganization of Infant Formula Milk Powder Enterprises", "Opinions on Promoting the Revitalization of the Dairy Industry to Ensure the Quality and Safety of Dairy Products", "Several Opinions on Further Promoting the Revitalization of the Dairy Industry", which greatly accelerated the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure and pushed the ESG level of the dairy industry to a higher level. Dairy enterprises have also actively adjusted after the pain, reborn from the trough, the level of standardization, scale and modernization of the dairy industry has been significantly improved in the past decade, and the leading enterprises have ranked among the top ten international dairy enterprises. ”

The practice of dairy industry improvement in the field of ESG also shows that exploring the road of sustainable development of the industry requires government leadership and industry-wide participation, which is also the starting point of this seminar.

Finally, Zhu Yan concluded: "Today, Global Network joined hands with Lianhua Shengshi, a leader in China's rating industry, and Lianhua Shengshi, a professional service organization for corporate brands, to jointly hold this forum, precisely in order to advocate the greater popularization of the ESG concept and effectively improve the quality, efficiency and competitiveness of the development of China's dairy industry." At present, the dairy market is in the changing pattern of the international trade environment, facing the dual contradictions of structural excess and shortage. Dairy is an indispensable industry for a healthy China and a strong nation, a representative industry for food safety, a landmark industry for agricultural modernization and a strategic industry for the coordinated development of the first, second, and third industries, a typical industry driven by domestic demand, and a key industry for the next step of domestic circulation to drive the development of international and domestic double circulation. ”