14th July, 2006: Ho Chi Minh City, VIETNAM - Taiwan’s Uni-President yesterday began commissioning a US$25.4-million fish feed factory in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, aiming to meet increasing demand in the delta.
The facility, which took a year to build, covers five hectares, 1.5 times bigger than its similar plant in Song Than II Industrial Park in the southern province of Binh Duong, where the company has three factories in all.
Cheng Wen Chin, general director of Uni-President Vietnam Co., Ltd, said the new factory in My Tho Industrial Park would be able to produce 100,000 tons of fish feed for phase one and obtain annual revenue of some US$30 million.
The company will also set up a fish breeder farm and a laboratory in Tien Giang to research fish diseases and tiger shrimp cultivation.
Uni-President, which entered Vietnam in 1999 with total pledged investment capital of US$220 million, is active in a range of fields like animal and fish feed, wheat flour, food and beverages.
The fish feed factory at Song Than II is operating at full capacity but cannot fulfill increasing orders, Cheng said, adding last year the factory’s sales totaled 75,000 tons, with most of it supplied for the Mekong Delta market.
“Fish farming has been growing strongly, so the fish feed market still has room for new players,” he explained the reason for building the facility in Tien Giang.
The country’s aquatic product sector last year fetched US$1.2 billion from exports, only after oil and garments.
This sector needs some 800,000 tons of fish feed worth US$400 million a year.
With the new mill in place, the company expects to hold a 25% local market share.
At the opening ceremony yesterday, Uni-President Corporation deputy general director Lo Chih Hsien said: “Our business strategy is
to boost overseas investment and diversify our product lines.”
The company has selected Vietnam as a place for its long-term investment because the country is known for stability, security and high economic growth.
Vietnam is a potentially large market, so Uni-President will venture into other fields of business here in the near future, he added.
Uni-President is now the largest investor in Binh Duong’s industrial zones.
