TH has invested in a system of huge projects worth of US$2.7 billion in the Russian Federation, even as the world’s largest country is imposed an embargo. This is a profound gratitude of our Vietnam to compassionate and great Russia.
The person who talks the talk and walks the walk
Looking back on the whole long process since TH Group started surveying and won the trust to get a vast land area from Moscow to surrounding provinces and to the distant Far East; made stunning successes from building factories to signing contracts and meeting high-ranking Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, and to rearing milk cows; and achieved important milestones like inaugurating dairy farms and milk processing plants in Moscow, and building organic dairy mills in Kaluga, we will understand that Moscow Mayor’s remarks on Madam Thai Huong, founder and investment mentor to TH Group, are very reasonable.
The mayor said he adores entrepreneur Thai Huong very much because she “talks the talk and walks the walk”. At a direct meeting in Vladivostok in 2017, President Vladimir Putin praised Thai Huong with emotional words.
Frankly, at first, many doubted TH Group's US$2.7 billion investment project in the Russian Federation because the value was huge and it was contrary to the old thinking that a Vietnamese company’s investment to grow grasses to raise 350,000 cows and process milk in Russia is unimaginable!
But, things have changed. Everything is so clear now. “The powerful milkwoman of Vietnam” and her colleagues showed that their investment expansion in Russia to Tyumen and then the Republic of Bashkortostan and to the vast Far East gradually became true. Her completed and ongoing projects are feasible and definitely fruitful. With its pioneering mission, TH Group expanded its third-phase investment with a total of 350,000 cows and a daily milk processing capacity of 5,900 tonnes, or nearly 1.8 million tonnes a year. The total area is 140,000 ha.
The project that enriches Vietnam - Russia cooperation “I highly appreciate TH Group’s efforts, the first private enterprise of Vietnam to invest in agriculture of the Russian Federation. In addition to economic contribution, the project is of great political significance, enriches Vietnam - Russia cooperation beyond traditional fields such as military technology, education and training. The project also demonstrates the competence of Vietnamese enterprises to integrate into international markets, apply advanced technologies of the world to enhance productivity and product quality. TH Group’s project can start an investment trend between Vietnam and the Russian Federation. For now, we are familiar with Russian investments in Vietnam, but now we do the opposite. Supported and facilitated by the two governments, this will certainly be a promising business deal. I hope that, with the success of this TH Group project, more and more Vietnamese businesses will invest in Russia, including in Kaluga Oblast.”
Excerpt from the speech by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong at the Groundbreaking Ceremony of TH Dairy Factory in Kaluga Oblast on September 7, 2018 |
Like in Vietnam, TH Group will develop the “from farm to folk” production chain. Its farms have been kicked off one after another. On September 7, 2018, in the presence of Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, the Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and high-level governmental officials of Vietnam and Russia, and officials of Kaluga Oblast, TH Group embarked on construction of a milk processing plant with a daily capacity of 1,500 tonnes - the largest of its kind in Russia. There, entrepreneur Thai Huong, founder TH Group, gave a touching and meaningful speech at the Groundbreaking Ceremony of the TH Factory in Kaluga Oblast.
“I went to Russia when this nation was imposed embargo and suffered shortages of milk, dairy products and agricultural products. As I promised, TH Group will become a good homemaker, will work with beloved Russian peasants here where the hibernation period lasts six months to create the best nutrient ecosystem in light of the farm-to-fork value chain and the humanity of the brand that serves as a guiding light, and create the world- standard dairy products,” she said.
Awaking fields
To feed dairy cows and supply raw milk for its forthcoming plants, TH Group is operating two farms in Moscow and Kaluga oblasts where the firm owns thousands of hectares of grassland. Due to various objective reasons, wasteland in Russia is vast. Indeed, TH Group’s projects have awakened the treasure of nature in Russia.
Russian people are becoming employees for TH projects. They are also surprised why TH can deploy its projects on such a vast area so fast. They turned this wild weed land into maize and other crop farms for dairy farming. Driving a pastoral vehicle across the immense pasture to the farmhouse in Moscow, Aliev Rasul, Director of the TH Farm in Moscow, is very proud of his current job. He picked up corn and ate right at the field. He said, cows will be very happy to eat pure and natural feeds. “Happy cows give more milk, so simple!” said the romantic and resourceful Muslim man. He and his colleagues worked hard to have this farm like today.
In Moscow Oblast, we witnessed legendary agricultural machines of the world worth of tens of billions of Vietnamese dong carrying modern equipment to collect feeds for cows. Combine machines break and plough the soil, grind weeds into fertilisers, sow seeds, harvest crops, transport inputs to treatment facilities, and feed cows.
For Ms Thai Huong, advanced technology is still the “golden key” for TH Group to grow in Russia. She has done right: Developing high-quality dairy cows with world-class technology and equipment used for production and processing of milk and many other agricultural products.
With its devotion and kindness, led by core values for the community, TH Group has been, and will be, embracing proud steps in Russia. As said by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, TH Group invested with a “huge but humanistic fund” in the “largest and most modern dairy factory in the Russian Federation,” and this carries a “positive significance” in various aspects in Vietnam - Russia relations.
L.H