It is believed to be a good start for Vietnam’s largest dairy producer this year.
Ten containers of high-quality plant-based milk – almond-flavoured soymilk and red bean-flavoured soymilk – have arrived in China and been available at local convenience stores while the State-owned corporation is ramping up production to deliver five containers of condensed milk before the Lunar New Year Festival.
In April last year, Vinamilk dispatched to China its first shipment of Ong Tho (Longevity) Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk, which has been well-received in the neighbouring country.
Last week, the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced that Truong Tho Dairy Factory, a member of Vinamilk, was granted with codes for exporting to China sterilized milk, modified milk, sweetened condensed milk and other condensed milk products. It is the third factories of the firm licensed to do so to date.
Vinamilk shipped plant-based milk products to China for the first time in late 2020, said the company's International Business Director Vo Trung Hieu. Thanks to positive feedback from Chinese consumers, the Vietnamese dairy producer has received more orders from China in early this year, he added.
China is a big, promising but very competitive market, so Vinamilk must be mindful in every step that it takes to gain a foothold in this market, Hieu noted.
Last year, Vinamilk exported more than 240 million USD worth of products, up over 8 percent from 2019. Its products have been available in 56 countries and territories so far.
China is the biggest milk importer in the world. In 2019, the country imported 39.43 million tonnes of milk and milk products. Of which, imported fresh milk was about 750,000 tonnes and milk powder was 650,000 tonnes.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation predicted that the demand for milk and milk products of this market would increase around 45 percent by 2025.
