PM helps inaugurate powdered-milk factory
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung attends the launching of the Viet Nam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk)’s giant powdered milk factory in the southern province of Binh Duong yesterday. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vu
HCM CITY (VNS)— Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung yesterday helped inaugurate one of Asia’s most modern powdered-milk factories, owned by Viet Nam Dairy Products Joint-Stock Company (Vinamilk) and located in Binh Duong Province.
Dung and senior government officials attended the opening ceremony for the Viet Nam Children’s Powdered-Milk Factory, which was built with investment capital of VND2 trillion ($100 million) and has a production capacity of 54,000 tonnes per year.
The newly opened factory is built on an area of 60 ha in the Viet Nam-Singapore Industrial Zone in Binh Duong Province’s Thuan An Town.
With the most advanced technology of its kind in the region, the plant is expected to help Vinamilk become one of the 50 largest dairy companies in the world.
“This factory will help the Viet Nam dairy industry successfully implement the government’s milk-sector development plan for the 2020-2025 period,” Dung said.
The country’s milk consumption in recent years has grown an average of 20 per cent per year. Yearly consumption is about 15 litres of milk per person.
However, Dung noted that domestic raw materials had only met 25 per cent of production demand, and the rest had to be imported.
Vinamilk’s intelligent warehouse.
Import turnover has reached $850 million per year.
For powdered milk, the yearly national consumption is about 65,000 tonnes, of which 30 per cent is produced domestically and the rest imported.
The Government was also encouraging the development of the food-processing industry to not only serve consumer demand but also fully exploit available domestic raw materials, he said.
Speaking at the ceremony, Mai Kieu Lien, chairwoman and CEO of Vinamilk, said the factory would be instrumental in helping the company reach its sales target of $3 billion by 2017.
Although many local companies suffered financially last year, Vinamilk’s revenue grew 23 per cent, reaching VND27.3 trillion (US$1.3 billion).
Its export turnover reached $180 million last year, contributing VND3 trillion ($142 million) to the State budget.
Vinamilk holds a 75 per cent market share in Viet Nam for condensed milk, a 90 per cent share for yogurt, a 50 per cent share for fresh milk, and a 30 per cent share for powdered milk.
Under the government’s milk-sector development plan to 2015, the country expects to have total milk output of 1.9 billion litres. That would grow to 2.6 billion litres by 2020, Dung said.
“Average consumption of all kinds of milk products is expected to be 21 litres per person a year by 2015 and 27 litres by 2020,” he added.
A worker of Viet Nam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk) operates a production line.
Production of fresh milk would reach 660 million litres by 2015, satisfying 35 per cent of demand, and 1 billion litres by 2020, or 38 per cent of demand.
Dung said that production of powdered milk would reach 80,000 tonnes a year by 2015 and 120,000 tonnes per year by 2020.
At the inauguration ceremony, the Prime Minister and Vinamilk CEO Lien autographed the first 10,000 boxes of Dielac Alpha powdered milk produced by the factory, equal to a value of VND1 billion ($48,076).
The boxes of powdered milk will be donated to the National Fund for Vietnamese Children and the Binh Duong Fund for Children. — VNS