February 8, 2011

 

Israeli firm embarks on a dairy farm project in Vietnam

 

 

An Israeli firm has embarked on a $500 million dairy farm project in Vietnam, bringing in 30,000 dairy cows and supplying 300 million litres of milk annually to the Asian country.

 

This is the largest project of its kind in the world and the biggest ever undertaken by an Israeli firm.

 

"This is a very large operation," says Daniel Hojman, the Uruguay-born manager of dairy farming professional compliance for SAE Afikim, based in Kibbutz Afikim near the Sea of Galilee. With employees from 10 Israeli companies relocating to Vietnam until the project is fully implemented, this is quite an understatement.

 

The company, whose AfiMilk and AfiFarm computerized systems for modern dairy farm and herd management are globally-recognized, won a five-year contract to manage a new Vietnamese corporation's scheme to boost milk production and consumption to unprecedented levels in this socialist republic.

 

Every 50 days starting last February, another 1,500 heifers have landed in Vietnam after a three-week ocean journey. After five years, the operation will encompass 30,000 cows at 12 state-of-the-art mega dairies and a milk processing plant supplying 300 million litres per year. By the end of 2012, 500,000 litres are expected to be produced daily.

 

Today, the average Vietnamese drinks 11.5 litres of milk each year - most of it made from imported milk powder - compared to 130 litres consumed by the average Israeli. Each dairy cow in Vietnam produces about 3,500 litres a year, or one-third of the output for an Israeli heifer. Israeli know-how will change that.

 

"The Vietnamese have not developed a professional knowledge of dairy farming, so we have to develop systems, manage the farms and at the same time train them in many different procedures," Hojman said.

 

Accustomed to lively (and famously intense) give-and-take, the Israelis are learning to adapt to the Vietnamese mindset as they work toward turning the project over at the end of 2015.

 

Even before the dairy venture began, more than 200 Israeli companies were doing business in Vietnam and exports from Israel accounted for millions of dollars of sales, according to the Israel Vietnam Corporation.

 

SAE Afikim CEO Ronen Zexer says that Ephraim Ben Matityahu, former Israeli ambassador in Hanoi, initiated many commercial contacts between the two countries and Israeli Minister of Agriculture Shalom Simchon brought a delegation of corporate executives in 2007 to stimulate new business.

 

Hojman relates that Israeli companies provide everything from milking machinery to food-preparation machinery. Feeding the growing herd is a major undertaking. Two of three ingredients for their feed are available domestically: concentrated grain-and-protein pellets and by products from sugarcane, pineapple or brewery plants. The third ingredient, silage and long fibre is not yet grown in Vietnam and must be imported from US for the time being.

 

Hojman sees the vast venture as a working advertisement for Israel's expertise in all the industries involved. "I hope that our ability to manage this kind of huge operation will reflect on all the companies' reputations to everyone's advantage," he says.