Experts praise VN dairy industry’s potential

“Milk industry is already on a growth path, and yet I could see huge potential in some areas that we all can explore,” said Robert Graves of Tetra Pak Vietnam, known for its food processing and packaging solutions.

“We could accelerate growth through increased penetration, innovation, riding on emerging trends and improving environmental profiles of our business operations,” he said.

Producers are focusing on sustainable production from optimizing energy consumption to using renewable packaging materials, Graves said, adding that basing on new trends, Tetra Pak has launched services that apply digital foundations in the milk production.
 
Vietnam’s dairy industry is witnessing strong and rapid growth, Bui Truong Thang, Deputy Director General of Light Industry Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

“With an average growth rate of more than 15 percent per year from 2010-2015, Vietnam’s dairy sector is increasingly creating a fresh and favourable development space for enterprises,” Thang said.

Businesses are constantly investing in the renovation of equipment to improve productivity and enhance quality to meet domestic demand. Many large enterprises like Vinamilk, TH True Milk and Nutrifood have set up large-scale milk processing plants, he said

Besides, they also have invested in dairy farms to provide more raw materials for production, he added.

Over the last five years, the scale of dairy farms has steadily increased, with the total number of milk cows rising from over 140,000 in 2011 to nearly 300,000 in 2016, said Vu Ngoc Quỳnh, general secretary of the Vietnam Dairy Association.

Raw material for milk production also jumped from 300,000 tonnes of milk to more than 900,000 tonnes from 2013 to 2016, Quynh said, adding that the revenue of the local dairy industry in the period of 2010-2015 increased from 42 trillion VND to more than 92 trillion VND.

In addition to opportunities, firms also face challenges ahead, Quynh said.

Vietnam’s dairy farming scale remains modest; farming households with fewer than 10 cows accounts for over 90 per cent of the country’s cows.

“Besides unfavourable climate for raising milk cows, the poor quality control system and the lack of storage and processing technology are also the obstacles for businesses,” Quynh said.-VNA