Song Xibin, mayor of Harbin, attends the launching ceremony of Nestlé’s Dairy Farming Institute in Shunagchen, Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, on Oct 15.

Nestle establishes a dairy farming institute in Shuangcheng, Harbin, capital of Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, on Oct 15. [Photo/ce.cn]

The institute will include classrooms, laboratories, dormitories and three training farms of different sizes to facilitate the training courses. It expects to train around 700 students annually through 17 different course offerings.

The institute is part of Nestlé’s long-running efforts to share its technical know-how and improve dairy farming around the world through training, responsible practices and partnering with stakeholders, including governments and universities.

"We have a history of developing milk districts, and the Nestlé Dairy Farming Institute is an extension of this,” said John Cheung, Nestlé China chairman and chief executive, at the launching ceremony.

Nestle is one of the top dairy companies in the world, its Dairy Farming Institute in Northeast China will help modernize Chinese dairy farming practices to enable farmers to meet the country’s fast-growing milk demand in a sustainable manner in the years ahead.

Song agreed with the principles and practices for sustainable dairy farming within the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform, which will serve as a basis for the institute’s teaching curriculum and training activities.

The mayor also said he has great expectations of the institute to help promote new-type urbanization in Harbin.