The Industry Ministry has already approved a development plan to 2010 to raise milk production, with total investment of VND 2,195 billion (US$137.19 million), state media reported.
Vietnam will mobilize loans, foreign investment, issue corporate bonds and shares and official development assistances.
The plan aims to increase per capita milk supply to 10 kilograms a year by 2010 and 20 kilograms by 2020.
To reach this goal, the industry must achieve an annual growth rate of 5-6 per cent in the next five years.
More processing plants in major dairy cow breeding areas will be set up in northern, central and southeastern regions, while small factories are to be built in small-scale breeding areas in mountainous and mid-land provinces.
The industry will also seek more overseas outlets for its products, with assistance from the Trade Ministry.
Meanwhile, local milk production companies have carried out several projects to raise milk production.
Vietnam’s leading milk producer Vinamilk announced plans to invest more than VND1.74 trillion in its operations this year. Some VND628 billion, or US$39 million, will go to existing projects, including the purchase of more dairy cows.
The balance is earmarked for new projects, like construction of new facilities in Phu My Hung urban zone.
Campina, a joint venture of Vinamilk and the Netherlands’ Campina International Holdings BV Group, said it will invest US$1.7 million in a cow breeding project in central highlands Lam Dong province. The project includes two 20ha dairy farms and 6ha of grass fields.
The project is scheduled to come into operational early next year.
Hanoimilk has spent VND58 billion raising production to 80 million liters a year. It has also implemented research to produce different kinds of dairy products to meet the demands of young people.
Dutch Lady Vietnam opened a second plant in Vietnam in Jan 2007, covering 58,000sq.m and capitalized at US$20 million.
Rien de Groot, director of Dutch Lady Vietnam, said the plant will contribute to dairy market development in Vietnam, as well as bring more products to Vietnamese consumers.
In related news, average per-capita milk consumption in Vietnam increased from 5.2 liters a year in 2000 to more than 8.0 liters in 2006, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Animal Husbandry Department.
Milk consumption is expected to rise as incomes grow, to a total of one million tons by 2010 from the current 300,000 tons. (VNS, Vietnam Panorama)
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