Standing tall: A groundbreaking ceremony is held for key projects in the Mengniu China Dairy Industrial Park in Hohhot. [Photo/China Mengniu Dairy Co]

Key dairy projects have started construction following a groundbreaking ceremony held on May 12 in the Mengniu China Dairy Industrial Park in Hohhot, capital city of North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region, according to local media reports.

Nine projects started up involving a total investment of 5.02 billion yuan ($744 million), including the Mengniu Phase 9 Milk Powder Factory, a COFCO Feed Factory, a Zhengyuan Dairy Cows Ecological Ranch and the Horinger Milk Goat Breeding Base. 

In addition, seven upstream and downstream support projects in the dairy, manufacturing and biomedicine sectors were signed during the ceremony, worth a combined 2.05 billion yuan.

Lu Minfang, president of China Mengniu Dairy Co, delivers a speech at the groundbreaking ceremony. [Photo/China Mengniu Dairy Co]

The Mengniu Phase 9 milk powder factory, costing 1 billion yuan, will be on a site covering 305 mu (20.33 hectares). It is the second 5G digital factory built by Mengniu in the industrial park.

The plant will mostly house production lines for adult powder, infant formula powder, goat milk powder and skimmed milk powder, among other things. On completion, the estimated output will be 36,000 metric tons of milk powder per year, worth 3 billion yuan.

The instigation of these projects is widely seen as being greatly significant for Hohhot in terms of its goal to become a 100-billion-yuan level dairy industry cluster. The city has plans to build an upgraded version of "China's Dairy Capital", as well as to comprehensively enhance the competitiveness and influence of its dairy industry.