increase font size
Prior to the recent purchase of Westland, Yili has spent $600m in establishing the Oceania Dairy plant in South Canterbury.
Yili's takeover of Westland, the second-largest dairy enterprise in New Zealand, creates a ‘dairy silk road’ between Asia and NZ, says Yili Group chief executive Jianqiu Zhang.
He says the takeover is a significant breakthrough in Yili’s global expansion.
“The acquisition of Westland helps us realise our vision of being the most trusted health food brand in the world by building a vast dairy bridge crossing the Pacific Ocean, helping the world to share health,” Zhang said.
Earlier this year, Yili launched its vision of creating a “global health ecosystem” as part of its drive to deepen its global footprint. It aims to integrate the best resources globally to better meet consumers’ health and nutritional needs.
Yili has continued to grow its footprint in Southeast Asia and Asia, offering more product choices to local consumers in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Myanmar.
Last year, Yili launched the Joyday ice cream in Indonesia, now available in major cities there and across Southeast Asia.
Zhang says the acquisition of Thailand’s largest local ice cream company, Chomthana, was a breakthrough for Yili in growing regional production capacity and gaining market access.
He says Yili’s expansion in Southeast Asia will result from its driving local economic development. A total of 85% of Yili’s employees in Indonesia and Thailand are local.
Prior to buying Westland, Yili had invested $660 million in creating the Oceania Dairy plant in South Canterbury, which the company claims is among the world’s largest integrated dairy bases.
Creaming it
The Yili Group results for the first half of 2019 show that its global operating revenue grew year-on-year by $1.1 billion to a total annual revenue of RMB $10b.
Net profit of $800,000 million was a year-on-year increase of $72m.
Yili has also signed a strategic partnership agreement with Lincoln University to set up its Oceania Research and Development Centre.
In June 2019, Oceania Dairy received the cross border investment award from the New Zealand-China Trade Association (NZCTA).
“We are confident our investment here will continue to create better opportunities not only for our employees, the dairy farmers of NZ and the Westland community, but for the global dairy industry and NZ as well,’’ Zhang said.
One of the country's leading experts on China has praised the NZ Government for its handling of the recent incident with China over that country's cyber attack on two of our parliamentary institutions in 2021.
Hopes of NZ sheepmeat prices picking up anytime soon in the country's key export market of China looks highly unlikely.
Zespri has unveiled the award-winning KiwiBrothersTM mascots in China for the first time to market its large kiwifruit crop.
Westland Milk has reaffirmed its commitment to pay farmer suppliers 10c above Fonterra farm gate milk price for the following two seasons.
Not all milk processors in New Zealand are struggling; just look at Westland Milk Products on the West Coast.
Meat processor Alliance Group is asking farmer shareholders to inject more capital in order to remain a 100% co-operative.
A vet is calling for all animals to be vaccinated against a new strain of leptospirosis (lepto) discovered on New Zealand dairy farms in recent years.
Dairy
Rural banker Rabobank is partnering with Food Rescue Kitchen on a new TV series which airs this weekend that aims to shine a light on the real and growing issues of food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand.
Telco infrastructure provider Chorus says that it believes all Kiwis – particularly those in the rural areas – need access to high-speed, reliable broadband.
World Veterinary Day falls on Saturday 27 April.
