Dairy Firms Chase Protein Boom, But Profits Remain Elusive
乳企追逐蛋白热潮 利润却依旧难觅
by Lee Shih Ta 李士达 著
[Industry] [行业]
From marathon running to muscle building, the global sports boom is spreading beyond footwear and apparel into nutrition. Consumers are paying more attention to what they eat and drink before and after exercise, as well as what they wear and how they train.从马拉松运动到肌肉训练，全球体育热潮正从鞋服领域延伸至营养领域。消费者越来越关注运动前后的饮食饮品，以及自身的穿着和训练方式。
Protein drinks, energy supplements and functional nutritional products are emerging as new markets that food companies and sportswear brands are keen to enter.蛋白饮料、能量补充剂以及功能性营养产品正成为食品企业和运动品牌争相进入的新兴市场。
China already has a substantial base of people who exercise. The General Administration of Sport of China’s 2025 National Fitness Survey found that 38.52 percent of residents age 7 and above exercised regularly, up about 1.3 percentage points from 2020. Average spending on sports among people aged 19 to 59 reached 2,428 yuan (US$362.75) per person. Exercise is increasingly becoming a routine activity on which people spend both time and money.中国已经拥有庞大的健身人群基础。中国国家体育总局2025年国民体质与健身状况调查显示，7岁及以上居民中，38.52%的人坚持规律锻炼，较2020年提升约1.3个百分点。19至59岁人群的人均体育消费达到2428元（362.75美元）。健身正逐渐成为人们投入时间与金钱的日常活动。
Running offers a concentrated setting for these products. The China Athletics Association’s 2025 China Marathon Blue Book recorded 594 marathon events during the year, with about 4.54 million combined entries in full and half marathons. These figures count entries, not individual runners, but they point to a big market for training and race-day nutrition.跑步为这些产品提供了集中的应用场景。中国田径协会发布的《2025中国马拉松蓝皮书》显示，全年共举办594场马拉松赛事，全程和半程马拉松的报名总人数约为454万人次。这些数据统计的是报名人次而非独立跑者，但足以反映出跑步训练及赛事营养补给拥有庞大的市场需求。
Milk contains whey protein and casein, ingredients also used in sports nutrition products. This gives dairy companies an opportunity to extend their milk supply and processing capabilities into protein supplements. Their offerings can range from everyday milk to convenient protein drinks for before or after training, reaching runners, gym-goers and other consumers with specific nutritional needs.牛奶中含有乳清蛋白和酪蛋白，这些成分也被应用于运动营养产品中。这为乳制品企业提供了将牛奶供应和加工能力拓展至蛋白质补充剂领域的机会。企业的产品品类可涵盖日常饮用的牛奶，以及训练前后饮用的便捷型蛋白饮料，覆盖跑步爱好者、健身房会员及其他有特定营养需求的消费者。
Chinese media, citing industry data, reported that large-scale dairy processors produced about 29.5 million tons of dairy products in 2025, down 1.1 percent year-on-year. Liquid milk still accounted for more than 90 percent of total output. With the industry so heavily weighted toward milk, processors need to find more uses for their raw milk if they want to expand revenue.中国媒体援引行业数据报道称，2025年大型乳制品加工企业的乳制品产量约为2950万吨，同比下降1.1%。液态奶仍占总产量的90%以上。鉴于行业对液态奶的依赖度极高，加工企业若想增加收入，就需要为原料奶开拓更多用途。
Credit: Imaginechina图片来源：Imaginechina
Caption: A half-marathon event near Suzhou Creek in Shanghai in March. The global sports boom have long arrived in China, with sports events like marathons emerging across the country.说明：3月上海苏州河畔的一场半程马拉松赛事。全球体育热潮早已席卷中国，马拉松等体育赛事在全国各地蓬勃兴起。
From dairy farms to the starting line从奶牛场到起跑线
That’s the backdrop behind Mengniu Dairy’s latest moves. Maction, its sports nutrition brand, recently completed a Series A+ funding of nearly 100 million yuan, with Citic Agriculture Industry Fund, Li Ning and Viva Goods among the investors. The funding was reported in September, offering a new example of growing ties between the dairy and sportswear industries.这就是蒙牛乳业最新动作背后的背景。其运动营养品牌马胜（Maction）近日完成近1亿元人民币的A+轮融资，中信农业产业基金、李宁及维维股份等为投资方。该融资信息于9月披露，成为乳制品与运动服饰行业联系日益紧密的又一新例证。
Maction’s products include liquid protein, energy gels and liquid salt supplements, targeting serious athletes and people who train regularly. Li Ning said the partnership would help it better understand sports consumers. Sports apparel and nutritional products serve many of the same customers, giving the two companies a closer understanding of athletes’ training and race-day needs.马蒂森的产品包括液态蛋白质、能量胶和液态盐补充剂，目标客户是专业运动员和定期训练的人群。李宁表示，此次合作将帮助其更好地了解体育消费者。运动服饰与营养产品的客户群体高度重合，这也让两家公司能更深入地了解运动员的训练需求和比赛需求。
Mengniu is also expanding its ingredients business. In April, it began mass production of products including lactoferrin, D90 demineralized whey powder and cheese. In June, it launched MnmpX, a dairy ingredients brand aimed at customers in the food, functional nutrition and sports nutrition sectors. From selling supplements directly to supplying ingredients to other companies, Mengniu is seeking new revenue sources.蒙牛也在拓展其配料业务。今年4月，该公司开始批量生产乳铁蛋白、D90脱盐乳清粉和奶酪等产品。6月，蒙牛推出了乳制品配料品牌MnmpX，面向食品、功能营养和运动营养领域的客户。从直接销售营养品到为其他企业供应配料，蒙牛正在寻找新的收入来源。
Rising prices for some dairy-based supplements have also drawn market attention. Yicai reported in June that the price of high-purity whey protein isolate WPI90 had doubled, while whey protein concentrate WPC80 had nearly doubled. The average import price of whey products into China rose 17 percent. These figures cover different products and measures, so they shouldn’t be treated as the same price indicator. They also show that increases were concentrated in specific categories, and not every whey product has become a high-value business.部分乳制补充剂的价格上涨也吸引了市场关注。第一财经6月报道称，高纯度分离乳清蛋白WPI90的价格翻倍，浓缩乳清蛋白WPC80的价格也近乎翻倍。中国乳清产品的平均进口价格上涨了17%。这些数据涵盖了不同产品和不同指标，不应被视作同一价格参考。同时也能看出，价格上涨集中在特定品类，并非所有乳清产品都成了高利润业务。
Profitability still in the wings 盈利能力仍待观望
The cheese business already offers more tangible evidence of demand and profit potential. Milkground Food Tech, a Mengniu subsidiary, last week reported revenue of 4.87 billion yuan for the first nine months of this year, up 22.97 percent year-on-year. Its net profit of 212 million yuan was up 20.37 percent, while its adjusted net profit, which excludes non-recurring items, rose 28.15 percent to 153 million yuan. The company said new natural cheese products continued to come to market, while revenue from both retail and corporate customers grew by more than 20 percent.奶酪业务已为需求和利润潜力提供了更切实的证据。蒙牛旗下子公司奶优食品科技上周公布，今年前九个月营收达48.7亿元人民币，同比增长22.97%。公司净利润2.12亿元，同比增长20.37%；剔除非经常性项目的调整后净利润也增长28.15%，至1.53亿元。该公司表示，新款天然奶酪产品持续上市，零售客户和企业客户的营收均实现20%以上的增长。
The results suggest there’s demand and profit potential for developing more uses for milk. Milkground attributed the rising profit to a growing contribution from its core cheese business and greater supply-chain efficiency. But cheese alone can’t prove that sports protein products will succeed: the customers, costs and sales channels are different.研究结果表明，开发牛奶的更多用途存在需求和盈利潜力。Milkground 将利润增长归因于核心奶酪业务的贡献不断增加以及供应链效率的提升。但仅靠奶酪并不能证明运动蛋白产品会取得成功：其客户群体、成本和销售渠道均有所不同。
Mengniu’s segment figures illustrate the gap between sales growth and stronger returns. In the first half of this year, its external revenue from cheese rose 32.6 percent to 3.15 billion yuan, but the segment’s pretax profit edged down from about 229 million yuan to 227 million yuan. Calculated as a percentage of revenue, profit from the segment fell from about 9.7 percent to 7.2 percent. Higher sales have yet to translate into a larger share of profit relative to revenue.蒙牛各业务板块数据显示了销售额增长与更高利润回报之间的差距。今年上半年，其奶酪业务外部收入增长32.6%，达到31.5亿元人民币，但该板块税前利润从约2.29亿元小幅降至2.27亿元。按收入占比计算，该板块利润占比从约9.7%降至7.2%。销售额的提升尚未转化为利润在收入中占比的提高。
Advanced processing also depends on making use of the whole milk supply. Overseas, whey production is often integrated with cheese processing, while China’s market is still developing in that regard. After extracting high-value proteins, processors also need stable buyers for remaining parts for the economics of processing to work.先进的加工还取决于对全脂牛奶供应的充分利用。在海外，乳清生产通常与奶酪加工相结合，而中国在这方面的市场仍处于发展阶段。提取高价值蛋白质后，加工商也需要稳定的买家来收购剩余产品，才能实现加工的经济效益。
Whether consumers will keep buying is another key question. In a 2025 survey by Shangpu Consulting Group, 58 percent of respondents said they chose domestic protein powder brands, compared with 42 percent who chose imported brands. iResearch estimates, using 2023 data, that dietary supplement penetration in China is below 30 percent, compared with more than 50 percent in the US. That estimate covers dietary supplements as a whole, not protein powder or sports nutritional products specifically.消费者是否会持续购买是另一个关键问题。在商普咨询集团2025年的一项调查中，58%的受访者表示选择了国产蛋白粉品牌，而选择进口品牌的受访者占42%。艾瑞咨询基于2023年的数据估算，中国膳食补充剂的渗透率低于30%，而美国则超过50%。该估算涵盖的是整体膳食补充剂，并非特指蛋白粉或运动营养产品。
The supply chain also needs further development. China imported 432,600 tons of whey products in the first eight months of 2026. Those serve a range of uses and cannot be equated directly with demand for sports nutrition ingredients. Overseas dairy industries often developed cheese processing alongside whey utilization, while China’s processing base remains comparatively limited in that way.供应链也有待进一步发展。2026年1-8月，中国进口了43.26万吨乳清制品。这类产品用途广泛，不能直接等同于运动营养原料的需求。海外乳业通常在乳清利用的同时发展奶酪加工，而中国在这方面的加工基础仍相对有限。
Whether the protein boom can deliver sustained growth will ultimately depend on products becoming part of consumers’ everyday diets, generating repeat purchases and producing actual profits, rather than being a fleeting flash in the pan.蛋白行业的繁荣能否实现持续增长，最终取决于相关产品能否成为消费者日常饮食的一部分，带来复购并产生实际利润，而非昙花一现。
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