A view of Westland Milk's plant in town of Hokitika. [Photo provided to en.hhhtnews.com]

New Zealand-based Westland Milk Products, a subsidiary of dairy giant Yili Group – which is based in Hohhot, capital of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region – recently acquired another New Zealand dairy group.

It conducted the transfer of shares in Canary Foods, completing the acquisition of 100 percent of its equity and by so doing, further increasing Chinese parent Yili's share of the global butter market.

Located in the city of Hamilton in New Zealand, Canary Foods has open access to that country's high-quality milk sources and self-developed production processes and is focused on creating world-class quality dairy products, including butter and cheese.

After 21 years of expansion into the international market, Canary Foods is said to have established an extensive market network, especially in the aviation, hotel and catering sectors and in other distribution channels. At present, its products are sold in more than 20 countries and regions such as New Zealand, China, Singapore, Japan, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

Analysts said Westland Milk's acquisition of Canary Foods will boost the added value of Westland's butter range, optimizing its product portfolios, expanding its penetration of distribution channels in the global market and further consolidating its leading position in the industry.

On Aug 1, 2019, Yili Group acquired Westland Milk Products, the second largest dairy company in New Zealand.

Yili subsequently integrated Westland Milk into its global operations system, achieving growth in output and income.

A new butter production line started operating on July 19 at Westland Milk, which is based in the town of Hokitika, on the west coast of New Zealand.

With the new production line starting up, the annual production capacity of high-quality grass-fed butter there has doubled to 42,000 metric tons. That makes the plant the largest butter producer on the west coast of New Zealand and also the largest overseas butter complex built by a Chinese dairy company.