SGS and Yili’s global alliance to elevate dairy quality and sustainability standards

SGS, the world’s leading testing, inspection, and certification company, and Yili Group, one of the world’s top five dairy enterprises, have signed a comprehensive global cooperation agreement focused on significantly improving quality across the entire dairy production chain.

The partnership is strategically designed to promote full-chain mutual trust and global standardisation across key areas of dairy production, safety, sustainability, and innovation.

The core objective is to raise the bar for the quality and reliability of the Chinese dairy industry on the world stage.

This global agreement is poised to deliver integrated solutions aimed at bolstering product quality and operational efficiency “from a blade of grass to a glass of milk”. Key areas of collaboration for enhancing quality and consistency include:

• Safety and nutrition: this pillar involves comprehensive services spanning testing, inspection, certification, training, and consultancy to ensure the highest standards of product quality and nutritional integrity.
• Laboratory empowerment: SGS will provide specialised training and consultancy to strengthen Yili’s internal laboratory capabilities, ensuring world-class precision and reliability in quality control testing.
• Digital integration: the collaboration will involve linking SGS and Yili systems for seamless testing and data exchange. This digital backbone will provide real-time data and transparency, improving decision-making across the value chain.
• Joint zero-carbon initiatives: beyond quality, the partnership addresses environmental performance, with SGS providing carbon reduction services, including audits and certification, to accelerate Yili’s sustainability and low-carbon goals.

Before the signing, SGS representatives toured Yili’s advanced facilities, including the National Dairy Technology Innovation Center and the Chilechuan Ecological Smart Pasture, gaining firsthand insight into how Yili integrates digitalisation and intelligent systems across its operations.

Liu Dapeng, vice president of Yili Group, affirmed the commitment to excellence, stating: “The belief that ‘Yili means quality’ is deeply embedded in our corporate culture…today’s agreement is a promise to global consumers — Yili and SGS will jointly demonstrate the quality and reliability of China’s dairy industry to the world.”

Charles Ly Wa Hoi, head of connectivity & products and health & nutrition at SGS, echoed this sentiment, emphasising SGS’s pivotal role in advancing Yili’s “comprehensive value leadership” strategy and building a more sustainable future for healthy food.