Plans revealed for world's largest integrated dairy production base

Plans for the Yili Oceania Production Base at Waimate, South Island, have been announced by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and other Chinese leaders. Covering packaging, processing, production and R&D, it will reportedly be the world’s largest integrated dairy production base.

Yili Group has invested more than RMB3 billion (approximately NZ$4 million) in the project, which includes a previous RMB1.2 billion investment and a new RMB2 billion investment.

The new investment will be used for a raw milk deep-processing project, a UHT liquid milk project, a milk powder production facility and a packaging facility. The raw milk deep-processing project and the UHT liquid milk project - worth RMB200 million and RMB500 million respectively - are expected to be the largest and most advanced technologies of their kind in New Zealand.

Pan Gang, President of Yili Group, and Tim Groser, Trade Minister of New Zealand. Source: Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co, Ltd.

Yili Group has also signed a ‘scientific cooperation’ agreement with Lincoln University. The agreement will see both sides cooperate based on their unique resources and technological advantages across the whole dairy industry chain.

The two parties will firstly focus on innovative technologies for improving nutrition and quality assurance in dairy products in the coming years.