Nestle has teamed up with local authorities of the Doukkala-Abda region of Morocco to give $5.7m boost to the Morocco dairy industry over the next three years.

The funds will be used to increase milk production, improve the quality of fresh milk and encourage the development throughout the private sector.

The initiative will also help farmers get trained and expertise on milk supply, technical equipment, management and finance.

Situated in the west-central Morocco, the Doukkala-Abda region produces 340 million liters of milk a year taking 22% of the share of milk produced in Morocco.

The partnership with the Agency of Agricultural Development and the Regional Office of Agriculture will help Nestle increase its milk collection by 10% till 2014.

Nestle Morocco CEO David Saudan told Food Ingredients First that this partnership will increase their dairy operations in the country.

"Our investment aims to encourage the growth of the dairy sector and help us to continue to deepen our engagement with farmers and their communities," Saudan said.

Having opened a milk factory in 1992 in El-Jadida to produce powered milk brand Nido, Nestle currently sources around 73 million liters of fresh milk from 16,000 farmers in the country.

The company has already invested $137m in building a new milk product facility in Chile and a UHT milk factory in Sri Lanka in April 2012.

Nestle has also made a dairy partnership in Brazil in 2011 and started construction of dairy farming institute in China in January 2012.