Kubota, the largest manufacturer of farming and fisheries machinery, generators and related components in Japan, opened a plant in the southern province of Binh Duong on Dec. 3.

The plant, which is located on 5ha in the My Phuoc Industrial Park No 3 in Binh Duong’s Ben Cat district, will be operated by Kubota Vietnam Co Ltd, a subsidiary of the Japanese group.

Kubota Vietnam is a joint venture between the Kubota group and the Siam Kubota Industry Ltd of Thailand .
Total investment in the first stage of the plant, which will manufacture tractors, combined harvesters and related components, is estimated at 11.37 million USD.

The plant is designed to turn out some 5,000 tractors, each of 30 to 50HP, and 1,000 combined harvesters per year in the first stage. This will increase to 15,000 tractors and 2,000 combined harvesters in the future, according to the company.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan said the Kubota plant would widen the supply base of farming tools in Vietnam , save energy, enhance productivity and increase agricultural production.

“It will also enhance the capacity of Vietnamese farmers and technicians to use modern farming tools,” he said.

Tan said Vietnam had recorded a mechanisation level of 1.16 HP per hectare of cultivated land, with the Mekong Delta at 1.85 HP/ha; the Red River Delta at 0.85 HP/ha and the northern mountainous region at 0.39 HP/ha of cultivated land.
The country now has some 400,000 tractors used in agricultural, forestry and fishery production, 98.4 percent of them, with a total power of 4.5 million HP, in agriculture.

He added that locally made engines and tools had a 40 percent share in the local market, with the remaining imported from Belarus , China and Japan./.