FDBusiness.com

Nestle is building on its commitment to help support the development of the global dairy industry with a new partnership in Morocco. The collaboration with the local authorities in the Moroccan region of Doukkala-Abda aims to increase milk production, improve the quality of fresh milk and encourage the development of the dairy industry throughout the private sector.

The Doukkala-Abda region currently produces 22% of the milk in Morocco, sourcing over 340 million litres a year. Nestle’s partnership with the Agency for Agricultural Development and the Regional Office of Agriculture seeks to increase the company’s own milk collection in the region by 10% by 2014.

Nestle will invest more than SFr5.3 million (50 million Moroccan Dirham) over the next three years. It will help more than 10,000 farmers by providing training and expertise in milk supply, technical equipment, management and finance. Nestle began its operations in the Moroccan dairy sector in 1992. Today Nestle sources about 73 million litres of fresh milk from over 16,000 dairy farmers in the country.

Nestle’s work with farmers inMorocco is part of its approach to business which it calls Creating Shared Value. The company aims to create value for its shareholders while at the same time creating value for the communities it serves and in which it operates. Rural development is one of Nestle’s three key CSV focus areas, as well as nutrition and water.

Nestle’s new partnership in Morocco is the latest in a long-line of investments it has made to support the development of the global dairy industry. The company invested SFr127 million in a new milk products factory in Chile and opened a UHT milk factory in Sri Lanka in April. It also announced the construction of a dairy farming institute in China in January, and joined a dairy partnership in Brazil at the end of last year.