Vinamilk imports 300 cows
HCM CITY — Three hundred cows imported from Australia by the Viet Nam Dairy Products JSC (Vinamilk) arrived in HCM City aboard a Malaysia Airlines chartered flight on Tuesday night.
The cows were taken to a company dairy farm in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong where they will be held separately for a period before being allowed to join the farm's herd.
A Vinamilk spokesperson said the company has invested more than VND700 billion (US$33.5 million) to develop five modern dairy farms in the provinces of Tuyen Quang, Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Binh Dinh, and Lam Dong, each of which can accommodate 2,000 to 3,000 heads of dairy cows.
Under a five-year plan Vinamilk, which will have 9,500 cows by the end of this year, will increase that number to 28,000 by 2016.
For that, it will invest a further VND1.5 trillion ($714 million) to set up four new farms in the provinces of Tay Ninh, Dak Nong, Ha Tinh, and Thanh Hoa.
It is also looking at co-operation and investment opportunities in Cambodia.
Vinamilk buys some 450 tonnes of fresh milk from farmers every day. For sustainable development, it has been helping them improve the quality of their dairy cows to increase their milking capacity.
The company plans to increase its milk purchase to nearly 600 tonnes by 2016. That will meet 50 per cent of its fresh milk needs for processing. —VNS