General Director of HAGL JSC Nguyen Van Su, left,  and Chairman of Vissan Limited Company Tran Thanh Hai at the signing ceremony of co-operation agreement. — Photo vnexpress.net

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — Three large Vietnamese companies, Hoang Anh Gia Lai JSC (HAGL), Nutrition Food JSC and Vissan Limited Company, will launch a joint venture aimed at reducing domestic prices of dairy products.

According to an agreement signed by the three companies in HCM City on June 9, HAGL will spend VND6.3 trillion (US$300 million) for building a dairy and beef cattle farm. Once completed by 2015, the farm will have 236,000 cows.

Beef cattle will be imported from Thailand and Australia while cows will be from Australia, New Zealand and the US.

The farm network will be located in Viet Nam, Laos and Cambodia.

Nutrition Food JSC will build a milk factory in Tra Da Industrial Park in September this year with total investment capital of VND5 trillion ($238.09 million). The project will be carried out in two phases.

The 2014-15 phase will produce about 290 million litres of fresh milk per year, while the second phase will help raise the total capacity of milk to 500 million litres.

The factory's equipment will be imported from Germany and Sweden. It will produce milk supplied by HAGL.

Meanwhile, Vissan Company will carry out its project on Vissan food processing industry complex in southern Long An Province, with an investment capital of VND2trillion ($95.238 million). The complex will have an annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes and will sell all beef supplied by HAGL.

Chairman of HAGL JSC, Doan Nguyen Duc told the saigontimes.vn that the first batch of 60,000 beef cattle from Thailand will be imported on June 16. Each head of cattle is about 18 months old, weighs 250kg and will cost around $700. They will be raised at the farm in seven months and then reach 500kg each.

General Director of Vissan Limited Company Van Duc Muoi said domestic consumption is estimated at about 3,000 cows per day. The price of imported cattle is very expensive. The cooperation between the three companies will help people consume quality beef at a competitive price. — VNS