TÂY NINH — Lavifood Joint Stock Company on May 2 broke ground for a fruit and vegetable processing plant in Tây Ninh Province’s Gò Dầu District.

The 15ha Tanifood plant on National Highway 22B in Thạnh Đức Commune is expected to cost VNĐ1.5 trillion (US$66.07 million).

To be equipped with technologies from Germany, Sweden, Italy, and Japan, it will include a production line for fresh fruits and vegetables and heat treatment with a total capacity of 10,000 tonnes a year, a frozen fruit and vegetable production line with a capacity of 20,000 tonnes, a production line for drying, soft-drying and sublimation drying of fruits and vegetables, and a line for producing condensed fruit juice.

It will also have a production line with a capacity of making fruit juices in 600 million cans, bottles and Tetrapak cartons a year.

Phạm Ngô Quốc Thắng, general director of Lavifood JSC, said the new plant would make “international standard” products for export to the US, EU, South Korea, Japan, and Australia.

The plant targets daily consumption of 500 tonnes of fruits like mangoes, passion fruits, pineapples and dragon fruits when it begins operation in November 2018.

Phạm Văn Tân, chair man of the Tây Ninh Province People’s Committee, said "The Tanifood plant is an important link in developing an agricultural value chain in the province and enhancing farmers’ incomes".

Thắng’s company plans to build four more such plants in the province to enable Tây Ninh to become a high-value farm produce export hub and raise farmers incomes by three to four times from the current $1,500 per year.

Many farmers in the province yesterday signed agreements with Tanifood to supply fruits for the plant.

Established in 2014, Long An Province-based Lavifood processes and exports fruits and vegetables to the US, France, Japan, Australia, Korea, Algeria and other countries.

The plant is its first project in Tây Ninh Province. — VNS