Vietnam Dairy Industry Potential on High Demand: Analyst
An increasing demand for dairy products in Vietnam is posing a great opportunity to investors, according to an official from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The yearly average growth rate of milk consumption in Vietnam will grow between 12% and 15% by 2015, said Trinh Van Tien, head of the Research and Development Division under the Information Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agroinfo).
Higher income encourages Vietnamese people to consume more dairy products, Tien said, adding that that dairy product consumption per capita in Vietnam increased significantly from 1997-2009.
Full cream dairy products saw the highest growth rate of 28.9% during that period from 0.07 kg per capita in 1997 to four kg per capita in 2009. The consumption of liquid dairy products had a growth rate of 10% per annum.
However, the average level of fresh milk consumption of Vietnamese people is still much lower than that in regional countries. A Vietnamese person consumes 14 liters of milk per annum, while the figures are 23 liters in Thailand and 25 liters in China.
The official added that domestic dairy industry posted a growth of 14% from a year earlier to VND18.5 trillion in revenues in 2009. The figure far exceeded the revenue of VND4.194 trillion in 2000 and VND13.36 trillion in 2007.
However, foreign companies, with a large quantity of imported products, continue to hold the largest market share of high-quality milk, the official predicted.
Powdered milk is the country’s most competitive dairy product, which earned VND6.6 trillion in revenues last year, accounting for 35.6% of the industry’s total revenue. About 70% of the powdered milk consumed in Vietnam is imported. (VNS)
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