Dutch agri giant De Heus, Vietnam firm to build $107 mln complex near HCMC

Dutch agribusiness De Heus and Vietnam’s Hung Nhon Group signed a memorandum of understanding with the People's Committee of Tay Ninh on Friday to develop a high-tech agricultural complex in the southern province with VND2.5 trillion ($106.5 million) in investment.

The signing was part of a business forum held in the province, which borders Ho Chi Minh City, to promote investments into Tay Ninh. The province is also on the Vietnam-Cambodia border.

The complex will include facilities for high-tech livestock farming, high-tech cultivation, livestock slaughtering and processing, material production for animal feed, and a breeding research center.

Johan van den Ban, general director of De Heus Vietnam and Cambodia, told the business forum that Vietnam is a major growth market for De Heus and the Dutch agriculture giant is committed to assisting Vietnam’s agri development and improving Vietnamese farmers' life.

He added that De Heus plans to put into operation a chicken farm with 14.8 million birds in Tay Ninh’s Tan Chau district by the end of this year.

De Heus entered Vietnam in late 2008 and started to ramp up investment in the Southeast Asian country in 2021 by signing a strategic agreement in 2021 with Masan, one of Vietnam’s largest private conglomerates. De Heus said at that time it would obtain control of 100% of the feed-related business of MNS Feed under Masan’s roof.

MNS Feed included 13 animal feed mills and one premix plant, with a total combined production capacity of nearly four million tons, helping strengthen De Heus’ position in Southeast Asia’s largest animal feed market.

As part of the transaction, De Heus and Masan entered long-term strategic supply agreements for feed and pigs. De Heus Asia CEO Gabor Fluit said at the time that a promising future was ahead for the combined feed organization, which would become the largest animal nutrition company active in the Vietnamese independent feed market.

De Heus now operates 23 factories in Vietnam, including 14 acquired from Masan in late 2021.

As for Vietnam’s Hung Nhon Group, the corporation has ties with De Heus in several businesses in Vietnam, including the co-development of a high-tech agricultural complex in the Central Highlands province of Daklak, with about VND1,500 billion (almost $64 million) in investment.

Hung Nhon will be the main investor in the high-tech agricultural complex project in Tay Ninh.