Nestlé and the Northeast Agricultural University signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on Wednesday. With the Dairy Farming Institute as the main carrier, the two parties will jointly carry out a comprehensive range of in-depth cooperation in science and technology, centering on the establishment of demonstration bases, practical technology and managementtalent training, student training and internships, among other aspects.

Nestlé has always been adopting a long-term, sustainable model in the development of its dairy business in China. Nestlé started building the Dairy Farming Institute in 2012 in Shuangcheng, Heilongjiang, and thisis in line with the call by the national "12thFive Year Plan" to promote the modernization of the dairy industry, whereby the Institute aims to fully cooperate with local government, investors, dairy farmers and relevant parties, to equip dairy practitioners with professional skills and knowledge of modern breeding and sustainable farm management.

The Institute is expected to be ready by end of 2014 and start enrolling students, as construction work is nearing completion. And this cooperation with the Northeast Agricultural University is a needed preparation for the implementation of training.

According to the memorandum of cooperation, Nestlé and the Northeast Agricultural University will jointly establish a school-enterprise cooperation platform that consolidates local and internationally renowneduniversity experts as well as well-known enterprise resources from home and abroad within the industry,to jointly develop practical techniques of international advanced level and dairy farm management training bases, provide talents and technical support for the establishment of large, medium and small standardized dairy farms that are suitable for China's national conditions, different regions and management models, jointly develop and promote new technologies and new achievements of the industry.

Mr. Christian Schmid, Senior Vice President, Technical, Nestlé GCR, said, "After the University of Wisconsin, the Northeast Agricultural University is another prestigious university joining the rank of cultivating talents of modern dairy farming.

We share the same goal, which is to help industry practitioners and dairy farmers transition to modern, large-scale dairy farming, so that they could produce higher quality milk through a more efficient and environmentally friendly method. Nestlé has always been a good partner of China in promoting the development of local dairy industry. We will share with the entire industry our experiences, resources, technologies and facilities."

Mr. Feng Xiao, Party Secretary, Northeast Agricultural University said, "NEAU is one of the key universities under the scope of China's ‘National 211 Project'. There are veteran experts and mature technology in areas such as dairy farming management, varieties improvement, disease prevention and control, dairy processing etc.

It is among the National Dairy Industry Technology Innovation Strategic Alliance Leading Units. It could provide science, technological and intellectual support to the mutual cooperation. The University is willing to collaborate with enterprises such as Nestlé. The University is confident on the mutual collaboration. It is believed that through the cooperation, China dairy industry's sound development could be promoted through training more professional managerial and technological talents on dairy development."

The Dairy Farming Institute of Nestlé has established connections with domestic and foreign enterprises and institutions that excel in all aspects, from feeding to breeding, in order to provide a comprehensive and professional training in dairy farming management to dairy industry practitioners, namely on how to improve feed, improve milk quality and yield, improve the health of dairy cow, provide world-class dairy cow breeds and dairy cowbreeding technology. Dairy farmers will learn how to nurse sick cows back to health, on top of receiving support from professional veterinarians.

About Dairy Farming Institute

The Dairy Farming Institute is located in Shuangcheng, Heilongjiang, covering a land area of 600,000 square meters, and is equipped with classrooms, dormitories, adjacent to three different types oftraining farms and laboratories (feed ingredients, digestibility, animal health and microorganisms, etc). One of the training farms consists a area of 200-400 dairy cows, which can be used to provide practical guidance to small dairy farmer and individual dairy farmer transitioning to professional management of small rearing area or achieving scale in dairy farming, and a large-scale farm of 600-1,200 dairy cows as well as a mega farm of 3,600 dairy cows, which are to help existing dairy farms of scale to achieve greater scale and by deploying more modern tools of management.

The Dairy Farming Institute will demonstrate how modern and professional farm management can help increase productivity. At the same time, it also provides a good example that a farm can achieve sustainable development in environmental, social and economic aspects, and will act as apioneer in leading the future development of dairy farming.

The Institute will uphold the principles of open and win-win, and by opening up to all dairy industry practitioners, it aims to become the top training institute that provides professional skills and knowledge to dairy industry practitioners in Shuangcheng and the whole country.

About Nestlé development in the dairy industry of China

In the past twenty years, Nestlé has been upholding "Creating Shared Value" as the foundation principle in the long-term, sustainable development of its dairy business in China. Nestlé is currently workingwith 14,000 farmers to achieving mutual growth and sustainable development.

For example: In 1987, three years before the dairy factory of Nestlé in Shuangcheng commenced operations, Nestlé had started investing in the establishment of milk districts. More than twenty years after that, Nestlé had provided free training and technical support to tens of thousands of dairy farmers, to promote large-scale and modernize dairy farming.Nestléalso supported the development of dairy farmers by providing farm design, mechanization and financing solutions. In 2013 alone, Nestlé had given training to over 5,000 dairy farmers in Shuangcheng. Over the past few years, the average size of dairy farmers in Shuangcheng almost doubled, while the number of farms with 50 to 500 cows also increased rapidly.