For a look at how Cambodia
could become the future corn belt
for Cambodia and other Asian
countries, go to
www.WATTAgNet.com/12284.html.
trend for the year was set with the formation of De Heus Vietnam by De Heus
International of the Netherlands, from its
purchase of local manufacturers Indochine
Feeds (located north of Ho Chi Minh City)
and PG Richfarm (based in Haiphong). CP
Vietnam Livestock Co is establishing a fish-feed plant in the southern province of Ben
Tre and an integrated feed+poultry venture
near Ho Chi Minh City. Vina Aquafeed
opened a mill in the Mekong Delta to join
its two existing plants nationwide. ANT
announced plans to build more mills in
Vietnam while estimating a 30% growth
to 120,000 metric tons per year for output
from its three sites in Long An, Hanoi and
Dong Nai in 2009. Cargill’s sixth feed mill
in Vietnam was opened at the end of last
year to make aqua diets in the Mekong
Delta province of Dong Thap.
It is no surprise that several of these
projects aim to produce feeds for aquaculture. Vietnam’s total production of aquafeeds has been rising rapidly, reaching 1. 5
million metric tons in 2007 and achieving
an estimated 2. 4 million metric tons in
2009 (see Table 2). Again this part of the
market is a mix of foreign ownership and
increasing consolidation. Looking only at
feeds for tilapia and pangasius, the production capacity of the seven largest players is now put at approximately 2 million
metric tons out of a total for all factories of
3 million metric tons/year.
However, the aquaculture business
in Vietnam suffered in 2009 from a combination of depressed demand, low fish
prices and relatively costly feed ingredients. Animal feed sales remained strong
by contrast, apparently not too much
affected by a series of disease outbreaks.
The operations manager of a major
Vietnamese feed company has told us
that it registered a sales growth as high as
34% in its southern sector last year and
this was mainly for pigs.
Company
Production capacity (metric tons/year)
Sales 2008 (metric tons) Market share
1 CP 2,500,000 1,600,000 18.6%
2 Proconco 1,360,000 1,115,000 12.9%
3 Cargill 740,000 625,000 7.2%
4 ANT 700,000 502,700 5.8%
5 New Hope 320,000 303,775 3.5%
6 East Hope 300,000 279,558 3.2%
7 Green Feed 380,000 265,315 3.1%
8 Japfa 344,000 232,395 2.7%
9 Evialis/Guyo 300,000 200,000 2.3%
10 Lai Thieu 400,000 178,943 2.1%
11 Viet Thang 350,000 170,000 2.0%
12 Anco 200,000 167,606 1.9%
13 CJ 200,000 158,510 1.8%
14 Vina 200,000 151,367 1.8%
15 Dabaco 500,000 142,777 1.7%
16 UniPresident 156,000 120,000 1.4%
17 San Miguel 200,000 111,217 1.3%
The 17 companies listed represent a combined production capacity of 9. 15 million metric
tons per year, out of a national total estimated at 13. 15 million metric tons. Their sales
in 2008 totalled 6. 32 million metric tons, or approximately 73% of a national total feed
production recorded as 8,624,163 metric tons.
TABLE 2: Production of aquafeeds in Vietnam (x 1000 metric tons)
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
336 391 421 486 604 762 971 1157 1530 1863
Official figures show that Vietnamese aquafeed production rose by 45% between 1999-
2002 and tripled in the period from 2003 until 2008.
In good position to benefit
About 40% of all pigs in Vietnam are on
farms within the delta zones of the Mekong
and Red rivers. These areas also account
for over 40% of all feed production nationally. Their mills are in a good position to
benefit from the expanded market that is
forecast up to 2015, in which the national
output of pork and poultry meat are predicted to rise to 4.35 million metric tons and
880,000 metric tons per year, respectively.
MARD has said it expects Vietnam’s
total feed requirements to increase by
more than 8% in the coming 10 years.
However, the problems in meeting
this extra demand will involve finding the
necessary ingredients as well as providing
extra manufacturing capacity. The aver-
age growth rate for local feed production
of 10% per year achieved over the past
decade has hardly altered a heavy reli-
ance on imported ingredients and blends.
By most estimates, Vietnam’s producers
do not meet more than 70% of demand.
