Bright Dairy and Food Co, China's third-largest dairy producer, will tap into the country's high-end infant formula market despite the current dominance of foreign brands.

The newly-launched Pure Canterbury brand will be operated by Bright Dairy and produced by New Zealand milk processor Synlait Milk, in which the Chinese company holds a 51 percent stake that it bought for 382 million yuan (US$60 million).

Guo Benheng, president of Bright Dairy, said yesterday that he expects Pure Canterbury to achieve sales of 2 billion yuan or even 3-4 billion yuan in the next three to five years through direct sales, e-commerce and traditional offline sales channels. Guo expected China's milk powder industry to generate 50 billion yuan worth of sales annually, with one-fifth coming from high-end products. But newcomers may face a tough fight as the foreign big-four firms - Mead Johnson, Dumex, Wyeth, and Abbott - have dominated the domestic market.

The production of the infant formula has started at a new plant of Synlait Milk in New Zealand, which has an annual capacity of 50,000 tons. The Shanghai-based firm aims to leverage Synlait Milk's stable and high-quality supply for better profit of its new brand in the domestic market. Guo said all Pure Canterbury-branded infant formula is produced above China's dairy standard, which came under fire recently as being below global standards.