The firm currently collects approximately 80% of its supply from ranches and large-scale farms.
In an effort to achieve this goal, Mengniu will also build between eight and 12 ranches this year in the Hebio Province, Inner Mongolia, and in the northeast and southern regions of China.
These ranches will each house between 1,000 and 10,000 cattle.
Enhance milk quality
Mengniu spokesperson Chris Kwok told DairyReporter.com that through its increased focus on scale farms and ranches, the firm will be able to better ensure the safety of the milk it sources and its finished products.
“By focusing on large scale farming, we can encourage more scientific methods and the quality of the milk produced will be enhanced,” said Kwok.
“Through this strategy the farms will have better quality cattle, control and feeding can be enhanced in the long term. It means more scientific and more modern methods.
“It will improve the safety of the milk produced,” Kwok added.
In 2008, six children died and more than 300,000 were sickened after consuming infant-formula contaminated with melamine.
A constant stream of food safety scandals have followed, leading to the implementation of strict legislation, including one law which states that dairy processors must control at least 70% of the raw milk they use.
The law was implemented in an effort to address quality and safety issues.
¥30m equipment investment
The announcements followed a media tour of its Hehua Ranch, during which attendees were given an opportunity to inspect the quality control processes and production procedures implemented by the firm.
During the visit, Mengniu also announced that it has spent ¥30m ($4.7m, €3.7m) on the purchase of new, more advanced inspection systems, as part of an additional effort to assure the quality and safety of its products.
“The focus for this acquisition is the chilled desserts operations which we have been involved in since 2004, when we entered the co-packing arrangement.”
“It is that part that we are focusing on. It is a very good facility, so what we wanted to happen was to use those assets and expand the range of products and move forward on that basis,” he concluded.
