The group revealed during a press conference late last week that it would continue to provide sustainable packaging for a variety of Sanlu's products. The move is part of a new green alliance relationship between the two companies.

As China develops into a leading industrial power, the country's government is beginning to push for greater environmental protection. Food processors face increasing pressure to find more sustainable alternatives for their packaging.

Ecolean is keen to push its sustainable packaging in the country, and expects that working with Sanlu will be important in achieving this.

However Ecolean's marketing executive Stephanie Wu believes that the cooperation is beneficial for both companies.

"We hope by using our products, our business partners could share every progress we make in the environmental area and benefit from it," she said.

The cooperation between the groups has already seen the creation of the Fresh Kettle yoghurt brand, which uses cost-efficient, low-waste packaging to attract consumer attention.

Sanlu has also provided an intial RMB3 million (€290,000) in manufacturing equipment for the development of further greener packaging products.

Furthermore, for every sale of Fresh Kettle yoghurt sold, Sanlu has said it will donate one cent to the China Environmental Protection Foundation.

According to Ecolean, this funding will be channelled into improving awareness of poor environmental conditions, growing economy crops, and educating children.