Visitors stream to the stand of Oceania Dairy Co, a subsidiary of the Yili Group. [Photo provided to en.hhhtnews.com]

Chinese dairy giant Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co – or the Yili Group – attended the fifth China International Import Expo opening in East China's Shanghai on Nov 5, marking its participation in the global event for five consecutive years now.

In recent times, throughout its continued global strategic expansion, Yili has led the Chinese dairy industry to respond to the new pattern with high-quality development.

In Australasia, Yili has invested in and built the Yili Oceania production base, acquired New Zealand's second-biggest dairy company called Westland and continuously delivered high-quality products to all parts of the world. On Oct 3, Westland completed the acquisition of New Zealand's Canary Foods, further increasing Yili's global butter market share.

In Europe and America, Yili actively cooperates with many countries and regions in innovative research and development, quality improvement, talent exchanges and resource sharing. In Southeast Asia, Yili acquired Chomthana, the largest ice cream company in Thailand.

In December 2021, Yili's first self-built factory in Southeast Asia – the Yili Indonesian Dairy Production Base – was completed and started operating, becoming the largest ice cream factory in Indonesia and the biggest production plant built by a Chinese dairy company in the region to date.

At present, Yili has built a backbone network covering a global resource system, as well as an international innovation system and marketing system in Asia, Europe, America and Australasia. Overall, Yili has more than 2,000 global partners, covering six continents and 39 countries.

Focusing on the key areas of dairy R&D and combining regional advantages, Yili has successively built 15 innovation centers in China, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia and other countries and regions – integrating global resources, attracting global talent and carrying out innovation cooperation throughout the entire industry supply chain.

What's more, through its continuous R&D and innovation, Yili has acquired a range of core technologies with independent intellectual property rights in breast milk research, dairy processing technology and new product development. As of December 2021, Yili ranked second in the world's top 10 dairy industries in terms of total global patent applications and total invention applications.