The 2014 annual Rabobank survey of the world’s largest dairy companies highlights the 20 giants in the dairy industry. Yili Group outperformed its peers in Asia, and became the only Asian player among the global top 10 dairy companies, with the best ever record in the Chinese dairy industry, according to Yili.com.

In analyzing Yili’s marching up to the global top 10, Tim Hunt, an analyst of Rabobank, attributed it to two parts. The enormous market potential brought by Chinese economic growth enables players in newly emerging markets with substantial capital and impetus to participate, he said. On the other side, for consumers across the world, products and services that are “made in China” are indispensible in everyday life.

He described Yili’s listing in the global top 10 as a symbolic event for the Asian dairy industry.

The success in winning a place in the global dairy top 10 was two year earlier than Yili’s expectation. It attributed the success to its cooperation with the Olympic Games. The 10-year cooperation with such a top event has endowed the dairy giant a big opportunity in quality and brand and helped to upgrade its structure.

Based on the cooperation, Yili transformed the group’s milk source construction, products upgrade, quality control system, research and development, global and domestic positioning as well as the sheer growth of market demand, into prominent strength to pave its way to the top 10.

In the past year, Yili has made some big moves in the oversea market to improve its control and brand influence in the global industry chain. Following its investment in the milk powder project in New Zealand, Yili reached strategic cooperation with the Dairy Farmers of America- an American dairy industry giant- and a well-known Italian dairy company, Sterilgarda Alimenti S.P.A.

At the beginning of 2014, Yili’s European Research and Development Center was established, based on its cooperation with Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and a strategic agreement targeting the first China-Netherlands food safety guarantee system was signed as well. Yili’s listing in the global dairy top 10 was a landmark for the Chinese dairy giant, and also signifies a new beginning.