BÀ RỊA-VŨNG TÀU — Cargill yesterday opened an 80,000 metric tonne warehouse for grains and oilseed at the Saigon International Terminals Vietnam (SITV) port in Phú Mỹ town, Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu Province, to meet the growing demand for grains primarily from the food and animal feed sectors.

Equipped with world-class equipment, the US$10 million facility meets safety, security and quality requirements and enables customers to receive agricultural products faster, more efficiently and more cost effectively, the company said.

This is Cargill’s first such facility in the south. It has another 50,000-tonne facility at Cái Lân Port in the northern province of Quảng Ninh.

“Việt Nam is a key market for Cargill and this new storage facility strengthens our ability to supply high-quality feed grains and animal feed products to our customers,” Alan Willits, head of Cargill’s grain and oilseed business in Asia Pacific, said.

“This investment is part of our strategy to expand our business to meet the growing demand for feed grains and animal feed, driven by increased meat consumption amongst Vietnamese consumers.”

In the past three years the volume of grains and oilseed handled by the company in Việt Nam has grown four-fold from 400,000 metric tonnes to 1.75 million tonnes.

By 2020 it expects this to increase to more than 3 million tonnes, making it one of the largest importers, marketers and distributors of grains in Việt Nam.

Alongside the investment in the storage facility, Cargill will also become the first company in Việt Nam to offer customers a digital platform that will provide real-time information including the warehouse stock position, shipment status, product orders and contract status updates.

The digital solution will be launched in June 2018.

Cargill, which came to the country in 1995, is a leading animal nutrition company that produces premix and compound feed. It also deals in food and beverage ingredients, grain, oilseed and metals. — VNS