BEIJING — The output of China's major dairy enterprises edged up 0.5 percent year-on-year in the first four months of the year, official data showed.

These firms, each with annual operating revenue of at least 20 million yuan ($2.96 million), produced over 9.69 million metric tons of dairy products during this period, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

In April alone, the country's dairy output topped 2.38 million metric tons, down 2.9 percent from the same period last year.

China produced 7.68 million tons of milk in the first quarter of this year, up 8.3 percent year-on-year, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.