Yili recently hosted the World Dairy Conference in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China, where its Chairman Pan Gang made the bold declaration that Hohhot had now progressed from being the ‘China Dairy Capital’ to the ‘World Dairy Capital’.
It is not just the firm singing Hohhot’s praises on its own: The International Food Science and Technology Alliance presented Pan with a ‘World Dairy Capital’ plaque onstage at the conference, and a ‘World Dairy Capital’ sculpture was placed in the Yili Modern Smart Health Valley in Hohhot on August 1.
The accolades aside, Hohhot has indeed emerged as one of the world’s largest and most important dairy hubs, being home not only to Yili but also its top competitor Mengniu Dairy.
Keen to live up to its dairy leadership position, Yili has not been shy about sharing the technologies it is utilising in order to shift the dairy sector forward.
“Many people today still see dairy farms as only having grass, cattle and cattle herders — but in the Yili Modern Smart Health Valley, all our cows have digital identities that help us to deliver personalised nutrition for each of them,” a Yili spokesman said.
“Every cow has a proprietary digital archive that records data on their growth, health and milk production in real time so the nutritious meals can be prepared for them at a ‘Central Kitchen’ according to their needs, showcasing how technology has changed farming to be not only efficient but also scientific.”
Milking at the farm is largely automated using technology and AI, following which the raw milk is delivered to Yili’s smart factory. Some 6,500 tons of fresh milk is processed daily.
“Food safety is of the utmost importance, which is why we use a hi-tech ultra-fast sterilisation process. This has been perfected to such efficiency that each run can be completed in 0.09 seconds, faster than the blink of an eye,” he added.
“We use this especially in our Satine fresh milk, and apart from the safety aspects it is also important to us as this process can help to preserve even more of the milk’s original taste and flavour.”
Innovation to serve advanced consumers
In addition to general milk production advances, Yili has also noted a shift in dairy demands from consumers both inside and outside of China, driving the need for more advanced forms of innovation within the sector.
“Consumers today are no longer looking at dairy for just basic nutritional supplementation — they want functional benefits and an upgraded experience if they choose to buy your product,” Pan added.
“This is a big driver behind the concept of precision nutrition, which has in turn become a key trend driving quality and category innovation. It is also why the dairy sector now needs to look to make the leap from one-size-fits-all to personalised products when innovating.”
Personalisation is at the core of what educated, advanced consumers today are looking for, and this inevitably ties in with functional nutrition that needs what Yili calls ‘deep-processing’.
“Deep-processed products here refer to items like lactose protein, whey protein, probiotics and more — essentially the transformation of milk from a basic raw material to high-value nutritional ingredients,” he said.
“This concept is also what will allow dairy products to be personalised and differentiated for specific needs, such as gut health and immunity, and ties back very closely to China’s ‘Food as Medicine’ mandate in this sense.”
