HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — The Vietnam Dairy Products Joint-Stock Company, or Vinamilk, last week began to sign contracts with dairy farmers to buy milk directly from them through next year.

It expects to buy 203,000 tonnes of fresh milk from 8,000 farmers with another 42,000 tonnes coming from its own farms.

The contract terms with regard to price and quality will be made public.

Vinamilk has been buying fresh milk direct from farmers since 1990.

It operates nine dairy farms around the country with 120,000 cows that produce 200 million litres of milk a year.

This year the company has paid an estimated VND3 trillion (US$134 million) to buy 178,000 tonnes from farmers and 47,000 tonnes from its farms.

The company has 91 milk collection centres with cold storage facilities around the country. — VNS