December 16, 2015

Vietnam jumps on organic dairy bandwagon

The global popularity with organic dairy has spurred Vietnam to look into developing such products, Sai Gon Giai Phong reported

For the production of organic dairy to be possible, livestock have to graze on pasture, be fed with certified organic feed and are not treated with drugs, Nguyen Dang Vang, the president of the Vietnam Livestock Association, explained. Companies, currently breeding organic livestock, include TH True Milk, Moc Chau and Vinamilk.

Organic dairy is an "unavoidable" trend in the world and Vietnam needs to endure the challenges of producing it, said Nguyen Xuan Duong, the deputy head of the Department of Husbandry.

For now, there are no official standards for organic dairy as well as for other organic agriculture products, according to Thai Huong, the chairwoman of TH Corporation.

Vietnam should have about 500,000 dairy cows producing a yearly volume of one million tonnes of milk, in order to improve the quality of dairy products, said Vu Van Tam, the country's deputy minister of agriculture and rural development.

Presently, 70% of the Vietnamese dairy market consists of dairy powder imports.