Vietnam dairy maker TH Group kicks off $204 mln project in eastern Russia

TH Group JSC, a leading Vietnamese dairy firm, on Tuesday kicked off construction of a VND5.2 trillion ($204.23 million) milk processing and cow farming project in Primorsky Krai territory, eastern Russia.

The project includes a farm with 12,000 cows, including 6,000 dairy cows, a milk processing factory with a capacity of 250 tons per day, and a raw materials area covering 13,000 hectares.

This is an important milestone in the process of implementing TH Group's dairy plans in Russia, following successes in Kaluga province and Moscow, where TH farms and factories are considered the localities' key economic development projects.

The TH Group project is expected to revive the great agricultural potential that has been ignored for a long time in the far east of Russia, said company chairman Ngo Minh Hai at the ground-breaking ceremony.

When the factory is put into operation at the end of 2027, all input materials will be provided by the farm cluster, officially forming a closed, high-tech production chain "from grassland to glass of milk”, contributing to the regional GDP growth of the Primorsky region, he said.

In addition to raising dairy cows and processing milk, TH Group will also grow plants such as alfalfa grass and soybeans for export, he added.

Vietnamese Consul General in Vladivostok Nguyen Dang Hien assessed that this is the first project by a Vietnamese enterprise investing in the region, and also a new development step in economic and investment cooperation between the two countries, despite the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and recent world geopolitical fluctuations.

"I believe that, with the efforts and determination of TH Group as well as the love for Russia of its chairwoman Thai Huong, the project will soon come into operation effectively, bringing practical economic value to Vietnam and Russia, and strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries,” he stated.

Chief of Yakovlevsky district Korenchuk Alexey Alexandrovich expressed his expectations for changes to the area after the TH project goes into operation. He thanked TH Group for implementing the project, which will create job opportunities for local people.

Outstanding mindset

The coastal territory of Primorsky Krai, with its administrative center in Vladivostok city, has the largest economy in the far east of Russia. It serves as a gateway connecting Russia with the Asia-Pacific region.

In 2023, trade turnover between Vietnam and the region reached $257 million, of which the Primorsky region, with the seaports of Nakhodka and Vladivostok, accounted for about 65%, or $167 million.

TH Group, led by Thai Huong – founder and chairwoman of TH Group’s Strategic Council, is one of the Vietnamese investors to have recognized the region’s potential and opportunities.

At the beginning of 2017, after Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev’s official visit to Vietnam and working session with TH Group to introduce the potential of the region, TH Group sent a delegation of experts to survey potential sites in Primorsky Krai. The Vietnamese firm officially became a member of the Mikhailovsky Advanced Special Economic Zone in September 2017.

TH Group has been running the cow farm and milk processing complex project in Russia since 2016, when Russia was suffering from sanctions imposed by Western countries, pushing the Russian people to a shortage of milk and dairy products.

TH Group is Vietnam's largest investor in Russia in the agricultural sector. Now its dairy complex has two farms with more than 6,000 dairy cows. Another farm is under construction in Moscow and a dairy factory in Kaluga province has been completed.

With high determination, TH Group has turned tens of thousands of hectares of land abandoned for decades in Russia into fertile, highly productive fields.