A production line of Tetra Pak. — Photo Tetra Pak

Tetra Pak, a leading global food processing and packaging solutions company, on Tuesday announced plans to invest US$110 million in set up a manufacturing facility in Viet Nam.

The company said it would be the country’s first paper-board carton factory and serve customers across the region amid rapid consumption growth and increasing customer needs in the Asia Pacific.

Tetra Pak said this year 70 billion litres of liquid dairy and fruit-based beverages were packaged across ASEAN, South Asia, Japan, Korea, Australia, and New Zealand.

In the next three years these markets are likely to grow at a healthy 5.6 per cent per annum, with products packaged in Tetra Pak cartons projected to grow at a much faster rate than other packaging formats such as bottles and cans, it said.

Michael Zacka, regional vice president, Tetra Pak South Asia, East Asia and Oceania said: “Over the years we have seen substantial growth of our products, driven by a wide portfolio and a number of innovations that we have introduced in the market.

“Hence our investment in a new plant, which will be our fourth packaging materials factory in the region.

The factory is expected to start commercial operations by early 2019. It will have an expandable production capacity of around 20 billion packs per annum across a variety of packaging formats. — VNS