On March 20, Ms. Verónica Fátima Navarro Alegre, Legislator for the province of Córdoba, Argentina, and Mr. Eduardo Accastello, Mayor of the City of Villa María, led a delegation to visit IFST for exchanges. Mr. Rodrigo Gómez, Commercial Officer of the Embassy of Argentina in China, accompanied the visit. Mr. Deng Hongliang, Deputy Director of IFST, researchers from the Dairy Processing and Quality Control Innovation Team, IFST, and representatives from Mengniu Dairy Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. attended the discussion.

Deng Hongliang extended a sincere welcome to the delegation led by Ms. Verónica Fátima Navarro Alegre. He stated that IFST has maintained close cooperative relations with Argentine scientific research institutions. With the support of the China-Argentina Food Science and Technology Center, IFST has jointly implemented multiple science and technology aid projects for developing countries and national key R&D programs with institutions including the National Agricultural Technology Institute of Argentina (INTA) and the University of La Plata, focusing on plant protein processing, meat processing and other fields. Fruitful achievements have been made in new technology research and development, as well as postgraduate and doctoral talent training. He expressed the hope that this exchange would serve as an opportunity to establish a regular communication mechanism with Córdoba Province and Villa María City, and further deepen practical cooperation between the two sides in dairy processing and quality control.

Ms. Verónica Fátima Navarro Alegre gave a detailed introduction to the foundation and characteristics of the dairy industry in Villa María, Córdoba Province. Through a special video, she comprehensively presented the local dairy industry chain layout, milk source base construction, processing technology characteristics and industrial development plans. She noted that Argentina has a solid dairy industry foundation and high-quality milk sources, and expressed the hope to establish close cooperative relations with IFST and leading Chinese enterprises to jointly promote the high-quality development of the dairy industries of both countries.

At the meeting, the two sides held in-depth discussions on dairy production and processing, new technology research and development, industrial collaboration and other topics, and jointly signed a Cooperation Agreement. This exchange has further deepened the practical cooperation between the Institute and Argentina in the field of agricultural food science and technology, and broadened the path for cross-border collaborative development of the dairy industries of both sides.