Vinamilk injects US$120 million into dairy farm in Laos
Vinamilk injects US$120 million into dairy farm in Laos
Vinamilk, the country’s leading dairy processing firm, has debuted the Lao-Jagro Development Xiengkhouang Co., Ltd, or Lao-Jagro, and broken ground for phase one of an organic dairy farming complex in the Laotian province of Xiengkhouang.
The US$120-million first phase of the project covering 5,000 hectares will house 24,000 dairy cows.
Construction of the project is slated for completion by end-2020. The milk products are expected to serve the Vietnamese and international markets.
In the second phase, the complex will p between 15,000 and 20,000 hectares and will be home to up to 100,000 dairy cows.
The two phases of the project, funded by Lao-Jagro, in which Vinamilk holds a 51% stake, will cost an estimated US$500 million.
Vinamilk is the main investor in terms of capital and experience in farming dairy cows at the firm, which is a joint venture between the Lao and Japanese parties and Vinamilk, while the Lao side will receive the investment and provide land to develop the farming complex and the Japanese party will supply rare genes for dairy cows, technologies and equipment and will manage quality in line with the high Japanese standards.
The investment in building the organic dairy farming complex in Laos is part of Vinamilk’s long term plan to develop a domestic and international fresh milk region to meet the rising demand for dairy products, according to Vinamilk.
When in place, the complex will supply organic fresh milk, meeting American, European and Japanese standards, to Vinamilk factories in central Vietnam.
Vinamilk will continue to cement its position in Laos by expanding hi-tech dairy cow farms and building plants to process milk-based products in the neighboring country.
In Vietnam, Vinamilk owns 12 farms nationwide, of which two farms have been developed based on the Organic European Standard and 10 others are operating under Global GAP standards.
The dairy firm is raising 130,000 milk cows, which produce some one million liters of milk each day.
Apart from increasing the scale of existing farms in the country, Vinamilk is planning to put into service one hi-tech dairy cow farming complex in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho, with a capacity of up to 22,000 cows, and to start building a dairy cow farm housing 4,000 cows in Quang Ngai Province.
In addition, Vinamilk holds 100% of the stake in Driftwood Dairy Holding Corporation based in the United States; a 100% stake in a dairy processing plant in Cambodia, AngkorMilk; and a 22.8% stake in Miraka Limited in New Zealand. It also owns a subsidiary in Poland.
