June 21, 2012

Vinamilk buys more Australian dairy cows

In order to boost its milk production in meeting local demand, Vinamilk, Vietnam's largest dairy product producer, imported an additional 250 Australian dairy cows on June 18, state media reported Wednesday (June 20).

This was the ninth time Vinamilk imported cows from Australia for its farm in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, which was built recently with total investment of VND150 billion (US$7.14 million).

The company plans to buy 200 more dairy cows from Australia in August for the farm, increasing the total number of imported cows of the farm to 800 this year.

Vinamilk targets to develop its farm in the Lam Dong province with between 1,600 and 1,800 cows which can produce 18-20 tonnes of fresh milk daily.

The Vietnamese biggest dairy firm, already imported 4,000 high-yield dairy cows from Australia and New Zealand from 2009, plans to increase the number of cows to 9,500 by end-2012. The figure would rise to 25,500 by 2015 and 28,000 by 2016.

The company already built modern cow farms in province Tuyen Quang, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Binh Dinh and Lam Dong with total investments of VND700 billion (US$33.5 million). It plans to build four farms more in Thanh Hoa, Tay Ninh, Dak Nong and Ha Tinh provinces with total investment of VND1.5 trillion (US$71.7 million) during 2012-16 period.

Vinamilk projects to produce 80,000 tonnes of fresh milk, meeting 25% of the firm's demand for its production. The dairy company posted a consolidated net profit of VND1.27 trillion (US$61 million) on revenues of VND5.88 trillion (US$281 million) in the first quarter of this year, up 26.23% and 29.56% on year, respectively.