Illustrative image (Source: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - Dairy giant Vinamilk will continue to expand operations abroad,especially in emerging market like Laos and Myanmar, this year.
Vinamilkwill build a plant in Myanmar and an organic cow farm of several thousandhectares in Laos this year, Do Thanh Tuan, the company’s PR director, told a recentpress conference in HCM City.
Allprocedures have been completed for the farm, which will be just 100km fromanother Vinamilk farm in the central province of Nghe An.
Now dairyproduction in the country only meets 35 percent of the demand.
Vinamilkcan collect 750 tonnes of fresh milk from its 10 farms and 8,000 farminghouseholds daily, and that is enough to meet the national demand forpasteurised milk, Tuan said.
Thecompany already has plans in place to process coconuts for export, especiallyto the United States.
“Vietnamhas huge potential in coconut products, but only one domestic company, TTC, isexporting them. We recognise that demand for coconut products in the US ishuge, and Vinamilk decided to enter the market and a large raw material supplyarea will be set up soon in the southern province of Bến Tre,” Tuan said.
In thelast 20 years, 2017 was the first time the company’s exports declined due topolitical fluctuations in the Middle East, a big market for it, he said.
“We onlyachieved 67 percent of the year’s export target, but thanks to an immediatechange in strategy to focus on the domestic market, Vinamilk’s turnover stillincreased by 10 percent from 2016.”
At theend of last year, the company also marked its presence in the sugar industry byacquiring a 65 percent stake in the Khanh Hoa Sugar Company for nearly 1trillion VND (44 million USD) and changing its name to the Vietnam Sugar JointStock Company (Vietsugar).
Everyyear, Vinamilk consumes around 130,000 tonnes of sugar, but the price of sugarin Vietnam is always 30-40 percent higher than in neighbouring countries,especially Thailand.
Vinamilkwill be very active in producing sugar and even plan to triple the capacity ofVietsugar to 500,000 tonnes a year, Tuan said.
Hepromised that the sugar made by Vinamilk would be cheaper than others’ and thecompany could take advantage of its 260,000 retail shops to sell the product.
Lastyear, the company had a 58 percent stake of the estimated 4 billion USD dairymarket.-VNA
