Vinamilk, Viet Nam’s largest dairy company, signed what it calls an agreement for strategic co-operation with Denmark’s Chr.Hansen Company in Copenhagen on Thursday.

This is the second time since 2011 that Viet Nam Dairy Products JSC – as it is formally known as -- is signing a deal with the Danish firm to source European-standard probiotics for its formula milk, yogurt, drinking yogurt, and others.

According to Vinamilk, between 2011 and 2016, after it signed the deal with Chr.Hansen and other food nutrition companies, sales of its formula milk and yogurt jumped two- to four-fold, doubling its revenue to US$2 billion.

Vinamilk now ranks among the top 50 dairy companies in the world in revenue terms, and its marketing chief Phan Minh Tien said its goal is to make the top 30.

To achieve this, it has to enhance co-operation with global food nutrition companies to continue improving the quality of its products, he added.

Chr. Hansen is the world’s leading food group. Established 140 years ago, it has offices in 32 nations and sells around 30,000 types of probiotics.

Vinamilk produces over 200 types of nutrition products and sells around seven billion products a year.

The company topped Forbes’ 2017 list of most valuable Vietnamese brands with an estimated brand value of $1.7 billion.

Its products are exported to 40 countries, and its exports rose from $30 million in 1998 to nearly $260 million last year. — VNS