(Yicai Global) Aug. 13 -- Ausnutria Dairy’s stock price climbed after net profit at the Chinese milk products maker jumped 45 percent in the first half of the year thanks to growth in its imported goats milk powder brand Kabrita.

Ausnutria [HKG: 1717] closed up 4.6 percent today at HKD7.92 (USD1), after earlier gaining as much as 5.3 percent. The Hang Seng Index edged down 0.5 percent.

Net profit was CNY594 million (USD91.7 million) in the six months ended June 30, the Hunan province-based company said in a financial report released late yesterday. Revenue gained 11 percent to CNY4.3 billion (USD664 million). 

Its Dutch brand Kabrita had revenue of CNY1.7 billion in the period, up 2 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 5.6 percent drop in the second half of last year.

As a result of the rapid growth of goat milk powder in China, which has attracted competition from major dairy companies, Kabrita increased its investment in brand promotion in the first half, resulting in a 17.8 percent year-on-year increase in sales in China in the second quarter, Ausnutria said.

Ausnutria’s cows milk powder business continued to grow, with first-half sales up 17 percent annually to CNY2.1 billion.

Established in 2003 in Changsha, Ausnutria focuses on the infant formula market. The company acquired the Netherland’s Hyproca Dairy Group in 2011 and introduced Kabrita to China, which accounted for more than 60 percent of the Asian country’s total goats milk powder imports from 2018 to last year, according to market research firm Nielsen.

China has become the world’s largest consumer of goats milk powder, with the market exceeding CNY10 billion last year and maintaining an annual growth rate of more than 25 percent, much faster than the 7 percent for cows milk powder, a report from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences showed.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Peter Thomas