Two Chinese dairy producers, Mengniu and Yili, entered the world's top 20 dairy ranking last year, according to an annual report released on Wednesday.

Mengniu, with a turnover of $3.77 billion in 2009, ranked the 16th in the top-20 list, Dutch financial group Rabobank said in the report.

It was the second year that Mengniu, the largest dairy producer in China, was among the top 20 dairy companies in the world. Its ranking moved up by three places in the list.

Yili, a main rival of Mengniu, was a newcomer in the list. With an annual turnover of $3.54 billion last year, it ranked the 17th.

It marked the first time that there were two Chinese dairy producers entering the world's top-20 ranking, after Mengniu first appeared in the list in 2008.

"After Mengniu's entering the top-20 last year, we now see Yili enter the top-20 as well," Rabobank said.

Among the top 20 dairy companies, Nestle of Switzerland remained the global leader, recording an annual turnover of $25.9 billion last year, nearly two times that of France's Danone, the world's No 2.

With the exception of two Chinese dairy producers, the top-20 list was predominantly occupied by western companies.

However, the main conclusion of the 2009 ranking is that the number of representatives of non-western countries is steadily increasing, thanks to rising domestic demand in the developing world, Rabobank said.

"Companies mainly operating in the mature markets of Europe and the United States may find it hard to achieve further growth, while companies operating in developing markets have ample opportunity to increase sales simply by keeping up with domestic market growth," it said.