Nestlé has inaugurated the Dairy Farming Institute in Northeast China to help modernise Chinese dairy farming practices, enabling farmers to meet the country’s fast-growing milk demand in a sustainable manner in the years ahead. Nestlé is investing around CHF 30m in the Dairy Farming Institute.
The institute, located in Shuangcheng in Heilongjiang Province, is part of Nestlé’s long-running effort to share its technical knowhow and to improve dairy farming around the world through training, responsible practices and partnering with stakeholders, including governments and universities.
“We have a history of developing milk districts and the Nestlé Dairy Farming Institute is an extension of this,” said John Cheung, Nestlé China chairman and chief executive.
Nestlé has already established three milk districts in China, in Shuangcheng, Laixi in Qingdao and Hulunbeier in Inner Mongolia. China is one of the fastest growing markets for milk products globally and the market could almost double in volume by 2020 from current levels.
“Milk is becoming a vital part of the Chinese diet, so the institute represents our commitment to helping China move its dairy sector to the next stage of development in a sustainable and efficient manner,” said Hans Joehr, Nestlé’s head of agriculture.
The institute will include classrooms, laboratories, dormitories, and three different-sized training farms to facilitate the training courses. The institute expects to train around 700 students annually through 17 different course offerings.
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