The institute will include a series of training farms which, Nestlé hopes, will become the country’s leading dairy training centre within the next five years.
The firm has invested about £260M in the project which will be used to train more than 11,000 farmers for the management of dairy farms.
Rural milk farmers
“Nestlé’s commitment to dairy production always starts at the source and in the Shuangcheng milk district, we build direct relationships with each of the rural milk farmers who supply us with farm-fresh products,” the firm revealed.
“Over the past 20 years, we have created a unique milk collection model called ‘factory and farmers’ that provides farmers with technical assistance whilst effectively eliminating the middleman to ensure traceability and accountability across our supply chain.”
Nestlé’s originally established a milk production facility in Shuangcheng in 1987. It is currently the largest of its kind in Asia and ranks fourth in the world in terms of annual dairy production in the Nestlé Group.
Local concern about domestic production means China has welcomed western investment.