US-Singapore joint venture VAL invests $100 mln to expand soybean crushing capacity in southern Vietnam

A U.S.-Singapore agribusiness joint venture has added a second soybean crushing line worth more than $100 million at its facility in southern Vietnam, lifting total capacity to one of the highest in Southeast Asia.

Vietnam Agriculture Limited (VAL), a joint venture between U.S.-based Bunge and Singapore’s Wilmar International, inaugurated the new line on Wednesday at the Phu My 1 Industrial Park in Ho Chi Minh City. The addition boosts the complex’s total crushing capacity to 7,800 tons per day.

The new line, with a design capacity of 4,000 tons per day, adds to the original unit that has been in operation since 2011. At full capacity, the plant can process about 2.6 million tons of soybeans annually, supplying nearly two million tons of soybean meal, equivalent to around 30% of Vietnam’s feed industry demand.

Nguyen Minh Vi, VAL’s chief executive, said the expansion aims to meet rising domestic and export demand and strengthen the supply of plant-based protein for Vietnam’s fast-growing livestock sector. The livestock industry has expanded 3-5% annually over the past two decades, increasing its reliance on soybean meal imports.

Locally produced supplies from the Phu My facility helps feed manufacturers shorten delivery times compared with seaborne imports, which typically require around two months of transit, the VAL executive said.

The facility can accommodate Panamax-class vessels of up to 100,000 tons, enabling the plant to receive soybeans shipped from South America and the U.S. VAL also plans to produce more than 500,000 tons of crude soybean oil annually for domestic consumption and for export to key markets such as South Korea.

VAL was founded in 2008 with investment from Bunge, which reported $53.1 billion in revenue in 2024. Wilmar International, which became a strategic shareholder in 2016, recorded revenue of $67.4 billion last year.