Chinese dairy giant Yili and its New Zealand subsidiary, Oceania Dairy, have established a research and development centre at Lincoln University.
It followed the signing of a memorandum of understanding in November last year by the university and the Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group (Yili).
That same month, Oceania Dairy's $236 million factory at Glenavy was opened, with Yili confirming plans to invest a further $400 million in the plant.
That upgrade would provide extra capabilities in milk processing, powder manufacturing and packaging.
Dr Philip Wescombe, Yili's newly recruited research and development manager, is now based at the Lincoln campus, 11,000km from the company's head office at Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia.
Lincoln's business development manager, Dr Samuel Yu, described it as an ''important milestone'' for the partnership between Yili and the university.
''Yili and Lincoln share similar interests, with Yili investing in areas such as food safety and production, as well as on-farm issues like effluent management, improving pasture production and sustainability,'' Dr Yu said.
Dr Wescombe was a specialist in microbes and probiotics development, making him an ''excellent guest speaker'' at Lincoln.
Some research discoveries might materialise at the Oceania Dairy plant, Dr Yu said.
By 2019, Oceania expected to be handling more than 630million litres of milk from local farm suppliers, generating export revenues of more than $700 million.
