March 28, 2012

Vietnam's TH Milk hires foreign firms to operate cow farm

In order to operate its US$1.2 billion dairy cow farm in Vietnam's central province of Nghe An, TH Milk Foodstuff Joint Stock Co. has hired Israel's Afikim and New Zealand's Totally Vets, state media reported Tuesday (Mar 27).

Afikim manages feeding and milking while Totally Vets is responsible for the animal health, the newspaper said.

TH Milk has developed cow farm in Nghe An province's Nghia Dan district which already has 20,000 imported cows, including 7,000 cows produce 160 tonnes of fresh milk daily.

On February 4, it had an additional 1,100 cows imported from New Zealand. This is a part of the company's plan to raise number of imported cows to 45,000 in 2012 and 137,000 in 2017.

TH Milk is one of the Vietnamese leading producers of fresh milk together with Vinamilk, Ba Vi Co. and Friesland Campina Vietnam. It plans to build a milk processing plant with an annual capacity of 500 million of litres of milk.

It will also import high-quality seeds and seedlings of corn and grass and other feeding materials for cultivation on areas of 1,500 hectares in a bid to reduce material imports.

In addition, TH Milk acquired Nghe An Tate & Lyle Sugar Refinery to get by-products for cow feeding.