Living between 3,000-5,000 meters high on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, grazing on pastureland and drinking glacier water, yaks are revered as a life source for Tibetan people.

As the bison was for American Indians, in Tibet for centuries the hardy pack animals have produced milk, butter, wool, meat and dung for fuel. Now some resourceful Tibetans are literally milking it as a cash cow.

Tibet Treasure of Plateau Yak Milk Co Ltd, the only modern milk processing enterprise in the Tibet autonomous region, unveiled its Feifan brand high-end yak milk product line nationwide on July 18. It's the first time that fresh, pasteurized yak milk has been sold outside of Tibet.

According to Wang Shiquan, chairman of the Lhasa-based Treasure of Plateau, the dairy can process 30 tons of fresh milk a day from two yak farms in Tibet and Ruo'ergai in neighboring Qinghai province.

It's only two hours from udder to the Tetra Pak processing and packaging line for the guaranteed fresh Feifan - which means "unique" or "uncommonly good" in Chinese, says Wang.

Yak milk business

Yak milk - higher in fat and protein than cow milk - is a daily drink for people on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and also churned into butter or cultured as a sour-milk cheese that is something of an acquired taste.

"We believe yak is a gift offered by nature to the Tibetan people," says Wang.

He adds that Tibet's tourists inspired the business opportunities for yak milk.

"They asked us, 'Why don't you take the rare, natural yak milk to the market? It might be a good way to make money and along with diary farming it will help protect the plateau,'" recalls Wang.

With government support, Treasure of Plateau was set up in 2005 with registered capital of 35.57 million yuan. The company started to buy raw yak milk from herders at 4 yuan per kilogram, a relatively high price in the area.

But there were literally some bugs to work out. Wang remembers that yak milk sent to the factory had some too-natural ingredients in it - insects and yak hair among them.

"I told them if you don't clean it up, you will be forbidden to send milk to us," he says. New stainless-steel pails were given to yak herders, along with instructions on how to keep the milk clean.

Before going to market, a series of food safety examinations are required, but initially the company also failed due to outdated processing technology and equipment.