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Vinamilk denies mistreating farmers
Vinamilk’s deputy director Nguyen Thi Thanh Hoa has denied the rumour that the company is short-changing dairy farmers in the central highland province Lam Dong and HCM City.
"We have a fair and open list of prices for buying milk from farmers according to quality of the milk, which has been applied for dozens of years now when signing contracts with farmers. It is completely wrong to state that the company treated farmers unfairly," Hoa said in an interview.
In an effort to satisfy the interests of both the farmers and the company, Vinamilk adjusts prices according to factors like harvest, world milk prices and the location the milk comes from.
Farmers from Don Duong and Duc Trong districts raise the most cows in Lam Dong Province. These farmers have recently been surprised by a notice from suppliers of Vinamilk’s Truong Tho Milk processing plant that the current milk quality was poor and would consequently be purchased at a lower price.
"The reason the plant subtracted money was that my milk did not reach the standard quality," said Tran Hoang Dung, from Tu Tra Commune, "I sometimes got only VND1,000-2,000 ($0.06-0.12) for a litre of milk, which is even cheaper than bottled drinking water. How can we live on that?"
According to Nguyen Thi Duyen, of Da Ron Commune, her family’s income from raising two cows is just a few hundreds thousand Vietnamese dong, excluding costs like growing grass and buying cow feed.
"We are more and more experienced in raising and milking cows," said Le Van Tan, a farmer in Duc Trong District, "The quality should be higher, rather than lower, than before."
There are around 3,000 cows being raised in Don Duong and Duc Trong districts, but many households have had to sell their cows because they could not afford the recent reduced price of milk.
"We have suffered a serious loss because of the increasing price of food for cows," said Ut Tanh, a dairy farmer in HCM City’s district 12, "Some households have sold off their cows to invest in other businesses."
Nguyen Van Hong, a farmer from Cu Chi District who owns 120 cows that produce 800kg of milk a day, complained that from August 11 to 31, he could sell milk at only VND2,500 per litre, VND1,500 of which was a crop subsidy.
According to Hoa, last year the company increased the price five times. The company also supported farmers through subsidies per-litre like the crop subsidy (VND2,000), direct milk delivery (VND300), breeding facilities (VND200) and punctual milk delivery (VND300).
To encourage farmers to improve the milk quality, the company has also increased the price for standard (grade A) milk from VND5,000 (US$0.3) to VND5,500 per litre since April. The company also lowers the price if milk does not reach grade A.
Hoa said that since the company applied the price-cutting policy, the quality of milk has improved.
For example, grade A milk with standard fat proportions, which was 58.79 in January, increased to 81.63 per cent in July. Grade A milk with standard dry matter proportion was 34.71 per cent in January and increased to 56.96 per cent in July.
"It’s common that ineffective dairy farmers quit the business and effective investors raise more cows," said Hoa, "A report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that many dairy farmers quit the business because they’re not invested enough and care for their cows improperly, which results in low quality of milk."
Huynh Thanh Thuy, head of the office of Lam Dong Farmers Association, told Viet Nam News that the situation in Don Duong and Duc Trong District had been explained.
"The cause of degrading quality of local fresh milk is that farmers have taken care of the cows worse than before, due to the increasing price of supplies," she said.
Nguyen Van Tuoi, deputy head of the socio-economic department of HCM City Farmers Association, who also has 120 cows, complained that Vinamilk took milk samples every day, but analysed only one sample to price milk for the whole week.
"No referee examines the way Vinamilk tests the milk. Is it exact and objective enough?" he asked.
He suggested concerned agencies think of feasible solutions to stabilise the price of supplies, increase fresh milk prices and limit the price-cuts.
Lawyer Nguyen Minh Long, from a Ha Noi law office, told Viet Nam News that if farmers feel they are being treated unfairly, they should raise their voices in the media.
"If they don’t trust in the quality system of the company, they should send a formal letter to the company to get a concrete answer," he said.
"Lawyers can help farmers find legal justice if the company breaks the contract they signed with the farmers with no satisfactory reason," he added.
VNS
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