Firms eye agriculture as lucrative new field: paper

Due to Vietnam’s obvious advantages in agriculture, many major domestic firms are targeting the agricultural sector, the Vietnam Investment Review reported on May 13.
Due to Vietnam’s obvious advantages in agriculture, many major domesticfirms are targeting the agricultural sector, the Vietnam InvestmentReview reported on May 13.

Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group (HAGL), once amajor player in the real estate sector, has felt justified inabandoning property projects to shift to agricultural sector.

“We’recompletely convinced that the shift from real estate to agriculture wascompletely the right move for HAGL,” the paper quoted HAGL ChairmanDoan Nguyen Duc as saying.

HAGL’s recent shareholder meetingreported that the firm’s post-tax profit of 972 billion VND (46.3million USD) in 2013, almost triple that of 2012, was thanks to a 58.7percent contribution from its agriculture sector.

Aware of thelucrative nature of their shift in priorities, the group has also begun anew programme to raise 100,000 cattle. Duc estimated cattle-rearingwould provide 4 trillion VND (190.5 million USD) in the group’s annualrevenues.

In addition to HAGL, Tan Tao – an industrial group thathas virtually no experience in agriculture – surprised businessobservers when it announced the launch of ITA Rice, a fragrant riceexport and research company, to cultivate rice paddies on 60.3 hectaresin the Mekong Delta province of Long An. The company plans to expand itscultivation to 5,000ha in the coming years.

Cam Nguyen Steel Co.has also invested in agriculture by building a rice paddy kiln andgrinder with the capacity of 580 tonnes per day and a storehouse of100,000 tonnes in the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap.

Thecompany’s director Huynh Cam admitted that during recent years, CamNguyen has faced difficulties in steel trading so it decided to investin agriculture, and it saw promising returns.

Dang Kim Son,General Director of Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture andRural Development under the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, said Vietnam had obvious advantages in agriculture.

“Businessesacknowledge that agriculture is a very promising sector, the prices offarming products have risen and will continue to peak for many years, soagriculture in Vietnam offers big opportunities,” he said.

Majortransnational groups are also increasing their participation inVietnam’s agricultural sector. Metro Cash & Carry is increasinginvestment in seafood, while Nestle and Bayer are targeting coffee, andconsumer giant Unilever is dipping their toes in the tea sector.-VNA

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