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Serving up a new way to do business
Returning after three months – accompanying Bretagne chairman’s visit to Vietnam, Groupe Glon's president clearly saw how quickly the country's first Agro-Park project in Dong Nai province in cooperation with Vietnam's Donataba was moving forward.
Alain Glon talked about what he has learnt and will do to apply the agro-model "from farm to table" in Vietnam.
How has the Agro-Park developed since you visited here last December?
We signed up three months ago with Donataba and other partners to develop an agro-business complex on 1,780 hectares in Dong Nai province’s Thong Nhat and Xuan Loc districts. The investment capital for the project is now estimated at $200 million.
And now with the visit of the Bretagne chairman, we have witnessed cooperation agreements between Bretagne and Dong Nai province, which is expected to accelerate the development of the project. The agreement will enable Bretagne’s businesses to cooperate with those in Dong Nai regarding information, training and production.
We also brought two farmers from Bretagne who will have a meeting with local farmers in Dong Nai and other near-by provinces to discuss on how to organise and run an agricultural cooperative. This is also part of the information exchange between Bretagne’s and local farmers we plan for next year.
Why are Bretagne’s businesses interested in the Agro-Park project?
In February, we staged a business meeting in Bretagne among leading Bretagne’s companies to introduce opportunities in Dong Nai, particularly for the Agro-Park. Many of them, especially agro-companies showed very high interest in that.
During Bretagne chairman’s visit to Vietnam, we had a couple of top executives join. They wish to gain the first-hand experience while having discussion with relevant partners. One of them was Jean Jacques Hénaff from Hénaff.
As a leading paté producer in France, Hénaff is very concerned about the pork not only its quality but also safety. It involves breeding to raising and slaughtering. Basically, Hénaff is the last chain of the model “From farm to table”.
As I know, well-established firms like Hénaff wish to take Vietnam as starting point to expand their presence in the region.
What is the next step for the Agro-Park project’s execution?
We will map out the project’s timeline for its execution. In the next three months we may get agreement from local authorities for implementing the three phases. The first phase will focus on training farmers with modern husbandry methods from Bretagne and the second phase on suggesting authorities form a legal framework to enhance production in parallel with environment protection. The last one concentrates on improving product quality.
You said the Agro-Park would help solve environmental problems. How?
At the moment, there are no specific rules in Vietnam. I found Vietnamese farmers have pig farms 10-fold bigger than those in France. The matter is that they don’t see the farm sizes would affect people’s health and and environment due to waste treatment. We ourselves have to pay for this.
Environmental care is one of the vital conditions that make us become the key suppliers to the giant customers like Nestle and McDonalds. At the Agro-Park, all the waste treatment will be designed and done properly and the investors will not worry about the environmental problems. We commit to produce the high-quality products but protect the environment.
What impact do you think the Agro-Park project will have on Vietnam?
From my study, I learnt that high-income Vietnamese tend to eat imported food, because they could not find high-quality meat from local producers. This would affect the local economy and local businesses like Donataba.
In addition, Vietnam has joined the World Trade Organization and this will open the door for imported products with low prices. As a result, Vietnam will be an importer of those she could produce domestically.
Thus, the Agro-Park will help us meet the domestic needs of high-quality products and the need for exports as well. Besides, it will accelerate the growth of local business, especially in cattle-breeding and food processing.
VietNamNet, VIR
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