Chinese leaders together with New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key, have unveiled plans for the Yili Oceania Production Base.
The production base will cover packaging, production, processing and R&D to become the world’s largest integrated dairy production base.
Yili Group, a privately owned company engaged in the processing and manufacturing of milk products, has invested more than RMB 3b into the project, inclusive of a 1.2b initial investment and a newly added investment of RMB 2b.
The new investment will be used in four parts including a raw milk deep-processing project, a UHT liquid milk project, a milk powder production facility and a packaging facility.
In addition to the funding, the Yili Group and Lincoln University signed an agreement known as: The Agreement on Scientific Cooperation across the Whole Dairy Industry Chain. Under the agreement, the two sides will carry out in-depth cooperation based on their unique resources and technological advantages, focusing on the strategy of the whole dairy industry chain.
The first step of the agreement is to focus on innovative technologies for improving nutrition and quality assurance in dairy products in the coming years.