Agribusiness majors embrace fertile Vietnam market

World-leading merchants and processors of agricultural goods attach great significance to the lucrative Vietnamese market, which is also able to feed their material needs.

Chicago-headquartered ADM is expanding its animal nutrition footprint in Asia, including Vietnam, as it acquired a feed mill in the Philippines early this May, following the acquisition of Golden Farm Production and Commerce Company in Vietnam last year to expand its Wisium premix offerings. The deal value was not disclosed.

Premixes are a complex mix of vitamins, minerals, trace elements and other nutritional additives, with Wisium the international premix brand of ADM.

“We’re excited to expand our vast capabilities in Vietnam,” Gerald Wilflingseder, President of ADM Animal Nutrition Asia Pacific, said in an announcement on its Vietnamese acquisition.

François Fernandez, Vice President, Wisium Premix and Services, said, his firm has been expanding Wisium’s capabilities around the globe, and is "excited to continue to invest across Southeast Asia" to expand and strengthen its position as a leader in the premix and services businesses.

With the addition of Golden Farm, Wisium now serves customers in Vietnam with a premix facility in Dong Nai province’s Long Khanh town, and with quality control according to international quality standards.

ADM Vietnam was established in 2016 and currently operates six factories, including the acquired one, two research centers, nine cross-country logistic platforms and an independent laboratory. These factories produce feed for livestock, poultry, pets, and aquatic life.

Like the American agribusiness group, Dutch company De Heus, whose core business is animal nutrition, is in the process of acquiring Masan Group’s feed business to further expand in Vietnam and supply feed and pigs to the Vietnamese conglomerate, a major player in the local market.

The transaction will allow De Heus to obtain 100% control of the feed business of Masan MeatLife Corporation, comprised of 100% of Anco and 75.2% of Proconco. The feed business covers 13 animal feed mills and one premix plant, with a total combined production capacity of nearly four million tons.

Via the deal, announced late last year, De Heus and Masan have launched multiple strategic agreements for the supply of feed and pigs by the Dutch side to Masan. De Heus said each side would also leverage their strengths and capabilities in the partnership.

De Heus did not disclose the deal value, but Masan Group said in a statement that the Dutch company would invest $600-700 million in their animal protein supply chain in Vietnam.

Masan Group CEO Danny Le said, "With De Heus as our supply chain partner, Masan will purely focus on developing the leading branded meat platform and investing all of our human and financial resources to deliver safe, delicious, and reasonably-priced meat products that adhere to international standards."

According to Vietnam Poultry Breeders’ Association, the country’s demand for animal feed ingredients is forecast to be 28-30 million tons a year (with half for poultry feed) over the next few years, worth $12-13 billion with annual growth of 11-12%. Feed production has been expanding 13-15% annually, and Vietnam has become the 10th largest producer in the world and Southeast Asia’s largest.

The association proposed last year that the Vietnamese government should work out an effective strategy to develop feed ingredients domestically to reduce imports. A fact is the country mainly produces rice bran and cassava, with the main reason being low productivity for other raw materials.

Vietnam will, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture has forecast, continue to depend on imports for raw materials like soybean powder, corn, other cereals, bran from copra and canola, animal proteins like meat and bone and fish meal.

Despite such imports of raw materials, the country can provide feed ingredients. This is one of the reasons Belgium biotech company Entobel chose Vietnam as its manufacturing base. Entobel says this location can give it access to an estimated 70 million tons of agricultural by-products that Vietnam supplies each year.

Headquartered in Singapore, Entobel is specialized in insect-derived feed protein with production activities based in Vietnam since 2013, providing ingredients for various industries including the animal feed, pet food, and fertilizer industry. Its current three main products are insect meal, insect oil, and organic fertilizer.

In early 2019, Entobel built its commercial-scale insect protein factory in Dong Nai province with an annual capacity of 1,000 tons. The Belgium firm’s next plant will be operational by 2023.

On Tuesday, Vietnam-focused private equity firm Mekong Capital said it had invested $25 million into Entobel, while Dragon Capital – one of Vietnam’s leading investment firms – joined with $5 million. The investments aim to assist Entobel to scale up its production.

“We are proud to partner with Mekong Capital and Dragon Capital to build a world-class plant before replicating the model globally,” Gaetan Crielaard and Alexandre de Caters, co-founders of Entobel, stated in a release.

Sjoerd Zwinkels, Mekong Capital’s deal leader for Entobel, said: "We believe in the founders, Gaetan and Alexandre, who showed so much grit and perseverance to build one of the largest insect protein production companies in the world today, starting from a small farm in Mekong Delta to a large industrial facility in Dong Nai."

Louis Dreyfus Company, a global merchant that dominates agricultural commodity trading worldwide, is also ramping up investment in the country.

The Netherlands-headquartered major, in a joint venture with Polish group Instanta, is building a freeze-dried instant coffee plant in Vietnam, the world’s second largest coffee producer and exporter after Brazil, but the world’s number one in supplying Robusta coffee.

The ILD Coffee Vietnam joint venture in March broke ground for the four-hectare facility in Protrade International Tech Park in Binh Duong province, which is part of Vietnam’s Southern Key Economic Region – alongside provinces Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Long An, Tay Ninh and Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s economic powerhouse. The joint venture did not disclose its investment capital.

In April, LDC secured an Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan of up to $100 million to support its operations in Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Thailand.

The funding aims at helping smallholder farmers recover from the economic challenges caused by the pandemic and improve their resilience to climate change impacts, the bank said.

An accompanying technical assistance grant will deliver capacity building and training activities. It comprises $205,000 from ADB’s Technical Assistance Special Fund for Covid Recovery and $385,000 from the Strategic Climate Fund, administered by the bank.

American agribusiness group Cargill is another global major that attaches much weight to the Vietnamese market. It established business in the nation in 1995 as one of the first American companies making investments after the normalization of the Vietnam – U.S. relationship. Cargill has grown into one of the most trusted animal nutrition and agricultural commodity companies in Vietnam.

Vietnam Report Joint Stock Company in December announced the country’s Most Prestigious Animal Feed Companies in 2021, with Cargill Vietnam second on the list.

To date, Cargill has invested more than $160 million in Vietnam to build 11 animal nutrition plants, one grain and oilseed warehouse and two aqua technology application centers for fish and shrimp. It employs about 1,500 people in the country.

Through animal health and nutrition workshops conducted since 1997, the group has trained 1.7 million farmers on healthcare, nutritional knowledge and best practices in farm management.