From the grasslands to the ocean, Yili Eight Degrees joins hands with Boao to create a "new" future together

Ask AI · How will breakthroughs in lactoferrin technology change the competitive landscape of the industry?

Yili’s trip to Boao is an important opportunity for China’s dairy industry to showcase the achievements of industrial upgrading and technological innovation to the world, and a crucial step in gathering global wisdom for collaborative development.

Investment Time Network, Punctuation Finance Researcher Yang Fan

By the banks of the Wanquan River, lush greenery abounds, and the seaside town welcomes “Boao Time” once again.

From March 24 to 27, the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2026, themed “Shaping a Common Future: New Situations, New Opportunities, New Cooperation,” is held in Boao. This year marks the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan and the 25th anniversary of the Boao Forum for Asia, with guests from global political, business, and academic circles gathering in Boao to discuss development plans and share visions for cooperation.

As the leading dairy company in Asia, Yili has been invited to this globally anticipated event for the eighth time to showcase the breakthrough progress of China’s dairy industry in enterprise transformation, technological innovation, and industrial chain layout, exploring new opportunities for dairy development and creating a new future for industrial upgrading with global partners.

Yili Group Senior Executive President Liu Chunxi

At the sub-forum “Shaping the Future of Enterprises in Transformation” held on March 25, Yili Group Senior Executive President Liu Chunxi stated that as a traditional industry, the dairy sector has achieved a leap from extensive, high-investment operations to intensive, high-efficiency operations, thanks to the driving force of innovation and the release and activation of productivity. Yili has firmly seized innovation opportunities and kept pace with technological innovation trends, achieving the upgrading of traditional industries; it has also promoted high-quality development of the entire industry chain through “driving industrial innovation with technological innovation.”

Currently, the global economic and trade landscape and market environment are undergoing continuous adjustments, and the stability of China’s supply chain and industrial chain faces multiple challenges, directly affecting national food security. The dairy industry is a strategic industry that coordinates the development of primary, secondary, and tertiary industries, making the stability of the supply chain and industrial chain particularly important. Yili deeply implements the overall national security concept, accelerating breakthroughs in aspects such as germplasm resources, exploration and separation technology of dairy functional components, and research and application of independent strains, enhancing independent innovation capabilities to ensure the stability and safety of the industrial chain; at the same time, it focuses on the goal of “cultivating good breeds, planting good grass, raising good cows, producing good milk, and building good chains,” delving deeply into the entire dairy industry chain and fully cultivating new productive forces in the dairy industry to promote industrial innovation through technological innovation.

From a cow, a piece of grass, to build a solid quality foundation for the industrial chain

Germplasm resources are the “chips” of the dairy industry and the foundation for high-quality development in the sector. Yili actively explores domestic and foreign dairy cow germplasm resources, building a characteristic germplasm resource bank and has established three industry-leading core breeding farms for dairy cows globally, fully tackling key breeding technologies for dairy cow sources. Currently, China has achieved significant technological breakthroughs in efficiently and accurately selecting dairy cow genetic traits and has fully mastered the special trait genome detection technology independently. Yili has also gradually realized “independent control of dairy cow sources and self-reliance in breeding science” through a series of breakthrough new technologies.

Forage is the “first raw material” for the dairy industry and is essential for ensuring high-quality milk. Yili is comprehensively developing domestic alfalfa to ensure the “food safety” of dairy cows. Centered in Alukerqin Banner, known as the “grass capital” of China, Yili is building high-quality alfalfa planting bases nationwide and researching and developing water-saving techniques for alfalfa planting, achieving over 20% water savings compared to conventional irrigation. Through tightly connected industrial chains, Yili has driven nearly 6.4 million acres of forage cultivation nationwide, providing quality forage for the dairy farming industry.

With independent sources, self-sufficient forage, and upgraded farming practices… a series of solid measures have propelled China’s dairy industry to achieve a historic transformation. Currently, the scale, standardization, and intelligentization of the dairy cow breeding industry have ranked among the top globally, with overall levels of core indicators such as protein, fat, somatic cells, and total bacterial count surpassing EU standards. China’s dairy industry has completed in about 20 years the industrialization process that took developed countries over a century, and Chinese milk has reached world-class quality.

From a drop of milk, a strain of bacteria, to uphold the safety line of the supply chain

Lactoferrin, known as “milk gold,” has a significant role in enhancing human immunity, with 1 kilogram of lactoferrin extractable from every 10 tons of milk. In the past, the raw materials for lactoferrin were highly dependent on imports, with international prices once soaring to over 20,000 RMB per kilogram. To break foreign technological monopolies, Yili’s research team focused on overcoming challenges and pioneered the “lactoferrin directional extraction protection technology,” increasing the retention rate of lactoferrin in room temperature pure milk from 10% to over 90%, achieving a technological breakthrough that allows “milk gold” to transition from a scarce resource to widespread application.

The breakthrough in lactoferrin technology symbolizes Yili’s firm grip on the initiative of the supply chain. In terms of safety quality, nutritional research, and equipment processes, Yili continues to break through key technologies, particularly in overcoming bottlenecks and technical constraints in “the exploration and separation of dairy functional components,” leading industry development and even surpassing monopolistic technologies in some areas. For example, Yili has independently developed “concentrated whey protein preparation technology,” breaking the long-standing technological monopoly abroad and creating a solid barrier to ensure the safety of the infant formula supply chain. In the key field of food science, Yili has also made numerous core technological breakthroughs in probiotics. Recently, Yili independently developed a probiotic strain YLGB-1496, derived from Chinese breast milk, which was approved for inclusion in the “List of Strains Usable for Infant Foods,” marking a significant breakthrough in the industrialization of local probiotics in China and symbolizing a leap from technology following to independent innovation in probiotic research and development.

From the laboratory to the production line, from technological breakthroughs to product landing, Yili transforms each scientific innovation into a healthy experience accessible to billions of consumers. During this trip to Boao, Yili showcased its “Family Bucket,” demonstrating the innovative strength and quality commitment of China’s dairy industry, attracting many attendees to stop and experience it.

The Boao Forum for Asia is a high-end dialogue platform connecting Asia and the world, and an important window for global political, business, and academic circles to gain insights into development trends and build cooperative consensus. Yili’s trip to Boao is an important opportunity for China’s dairy industry to showcase the achievements of industrial upgrading and technological innovation to the world, and a crucial step in gathering global wisdom for collaborative development. Standing at the new starting point of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Yili will base itself on the entire industry chain, use independent innovation as its engine, and precisely lay out key areas such as source breeding, forage, and milk, solidifying the “moat” for supply chain safety, continuously enhancing China’s dairy industry’s initiative in global competition, while working hand in hand with partners for mutual benefit and accelerating the cultivation of new productive forces in the dairy industry, writing a new chapter for China’s dairy industry on the world stage.

Investment keywords: Yili Co., Ltd. (600887.SH)