ASIA – Asia’s leading dairy products producer, Yili Group is set to unveil eleven new ice cream products in Southeast Asia as it strives to expand its presence in the market.

The new products include Mocha Coffee Ice Cream, a product featuring a unique recipe under the Joyday brand, recently launched in Indonesia.

Yili is banking on the Southeast Asian market trends where strong-flavoured, small-portioned and affordable products are most popular, especially in Indonesia.

The company plans to introduce eleven different flavours in the market, including mint, blueberry and sweet-corn flavour, with durian and mango flavour.

“We are delighted to see the successful launch of our products in Southeast Asia markets. We owe our sincerest thanks to the joint efforts of our R&D centres across the globe,” said Yipeng Zhang, Vice President of Yili Group.

“Yili has always been open and cooperative in the process of internationalisation. Yili is hoping to drive the global dairy industry further with our innovative capability and global resources.”

In a market characterized by high cost of cold chain logistics and raw milk supply, Yili will leverage on its unique lactic acid bacteria species developed by Agricultural University of Athens.

The company’s yogurt brand Ambrosial combines Yili’s advanced manufacturing and packing technology to provide the first PET-bottled room temperature yoghurt.

According to Yili Innovation Centre, the protein content is 35% higher than average yoghurt products.

This builds on initial plans to invest significantly in Southeast Asia this year, with the overall aim of further developing the dairy industry supply chain.

Joyday ice cream initially launched in Indonesia last year with plans to introduce the brand to other Southeast Asian markets.

It also acquired Thailand-based frozen foods and ice cream manufacturer Chomthana to expand in Southeast Asia.

The deal forms part of Yili’s international expansion efforts and came after Yili upgraded its European research and development facility in the Netherlands.

In Oceania, Yili invested RMB three billion (US$437 million) to build the “Yili Group Oceania Production Base” located in New Zealand.