Oceania Dairy Limited in New Zealand [Photo/Yili Group]

China's leading dairy producer Yili Group has benefited from its innovation-driven strategy and launched a global network of resources in innovation.

The technical strength of the enterprise relies on its three-level research and development system in China, and it has signed a group of cooperation projects involving technological innovation with overseas research institutes and universities. 

There are five technological R & D departments within the company capable of developing products to cater to the various tastes of the consumers at the tertiary level.

The second level innovation platform includes the departments of R & D, quality control, and information engineering of the Group.

Several industry-university-research cooperation platforms, such as the National R & D Center for Milk Processing, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Diary Research Institute, a post-doctoral research station of the Group are atop the three-level R & D system.

In February 2014, Yili inaugurated its research and development center in Wageningen University in the Netherlands, becoming the highest profile Chinese diary R & D center abroad.

In November of the same year, Yili signed an agreement with Lincoln University of New Zealand to conduct in-depth research on how to improve nutrition and to ensure quality of dairy products.       

A strategic agreement on food safety was signed in March 2015 between Yili and Wageningen University, a top university specializing in healthy food and living environment in Europe.

According to the agreement, an early warning system for food safety covering the whole industrial chain would be launched and China's first breast milk research database would be improved.

Yili's R & D network covers Asia, Europe, Oceania and the Americas and it has carried out multilevel and multidimensional cooperation projects with its global partners, hoping to make technological breakthroughs and realize win-win result.

Thanks to its innovative efforts, the Group has developed various brands targeting different groups, such as the Shuhua Milk, China's first milk specifically designed for Asians, who are often lactose intolerant, Satine, the first liquid milk produced in a full organic chain in China, as well as the QQ Star Milk for children and Ambrosial Yogurt.

At present, Yili's high-tech and high added value business account for more than 49 percent of its total, ranking first in the country.

Yili Group will continue to implement the innovation-driven strategy and play a more active role in global dairy market through further participation in industry governance.