One of China's biggest dairy producers has unveiled two billion yuan (NZ$400 million) investment plans in New Zealand.
Xinhua news agency says today the Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co Ltd had announced that its Oceania production base in Waimate south of Timaru will take just over half the cash.
Its spending will cover packaging, production, processing and research and development.
Yili say Waimate, which they have already spent 1.2 billion yuan into, will be the largest integrated dairy production base in the world.
Xinhua said Yili's move came as increasingly more Chinese customers prefer overseas dairy products as the reputation of local brands was damaged in the melamine-tainted baby formula scandal in 2008.
Yili was badly damaged by the scandal after tests found its infant formula contained melamine.
It recalled the milk and apologised to the public.
Its share price crashed and it was stripped of a state status as "Chinese national brand".
No child was ever confirmed as being ill as a result of drinking Yili milk.
The second phase of their New Zealand investment will include a raw milk processing plant, a UHT milk plant, a milk powder plant and a packaging plant.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/dairy/63457251/chinese-company-to-invest--400m-in-nz.html
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