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Drinking the world’s most expensive milk
Choosing the most expensive item as the best is not the ideal way to buy milk products in Viet Nam, experts said at a workshop in Ha Noi last week.
The Viet Nam Standard and Consumer Association (VINASTAS) told the seminar that the prices of dairy products have been continously increasing in Viet Nam since 2007, and are among the highest in the world.
VINASTAS’ deputy chairman Ho Tat Thang said prices of dairy products in Viet Nam were 1.5 to 2 times higher than the same products in other countries.
The retail price of milk in Viet Nam is US$1.4 per litre on average, compared with $1.1 per litre in China, $0.50 to $0.90 per litre in European countries and America, and $0.50 per litre in India and Mexico.
Thang said raw material prices for diary products had decreased by 40 to 60 per cent over the past two years, but the prices of the latter kept rising in the domestic market.
The sky-high prices of dairy products have helped producers, importers and distributors in Viet Nam earn huge profits from milk products.
"Profits in this sector amount to 86 per cent of turnover, the highest in the world," said Thang.
According to figures released at the workshop titled "Introducing Viet Nam’s Dairy Industry to the Overseas Community" in Ha Noi last month, powdered milk companies in Viet Nam earned profits of 22 per cent to 86 per cent.
It costs the companies VND100,000 to produce a 900g tin of powdered milk that sells for VND215,000 in the market.
Dutch Lady accounts for 20 per cent of Viet Nam’s powdered milk market share, followed by Abbott and Vinamilk with 16 per cent each; Mead Johnson, 15 per cent; and Nestle, 10 per cent.
Meanwhile, profit earned by fresh milk companies is 48 per cent on average, with Dutch Lady posting 37 per cent and Vinamilk, 35 per cent, noted reports at the workshop which was jointly held by the International Dairy Federation, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Nguyen Thi Quynh Chi, chairwoman of the Women Customers’ Association, said some 300 brands of milk products sold in the local market, which had been mismanaged.
Thang said the belief that foreign goods are better was one of the reasons behind Vietnamese customers buying expensive milk products for their children.
VINASTAS advised customers to carefully choose suitable brands for their children by studying the formula on the milk products’ package, instead of merely selecting the most expensive "imported" brands.
The association also proposed that dairy product prices be better controlled and import taxes on milk and dairy products adjusted.
Farmers scratch their heads
Farmers in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta still do not know who to contact and what formalities they have to go through to access the preferential loans provided under the Government’s programme to support the purchase of agricultural equipment and materials
Nearly a month after the Prime Minister issued a decision on interest rate subsidies to help farmers purchase agricultural equipment and materials took effect, many target beneficiaries are not even aware of such a programme, says Nguyen Duy Luong, deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Farmers’ Association.
Only 13 out of 90 farmers in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang who owned tra fish breeding farms totalling 120 ha have been able to get bank loans of VND34 billion (US$1.8 million).
The Agribank’s Tien Giang branch, which has earmarked VND500 billion ($28 million) for tra fish breeders, does not want to provide loans to most of them because it finds it too risky. Only those who have signed contracts with seafood processors can access Agribank’s loans.
Le Thanh Dung, chairman of Hoa Hung Tra Fish Breeding Coop in Tien Giang Province says only one of its 26 members have been able to get the preferential loan with a 4 per cent interest subsidy. Others cannot access these loans because they have not repaid all previous debts owed to the bank.
Yet another reason that many farmers in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta cannot get bank loans to purchase agricultural machinery and materials is because the Prime Minister’s decision states that preferential loans are provided only to buy domestically produced machinery and equipment.
That is why only two of 64 applicants in Tien Giang Province could get preferential loans.
Meanwhile, a report from the Can Tho Department of Agriculture and Rural Development says just 40 out of 162 farmers in the city who have bought combined harvesters have been able to get loans with subsidised interest rate.
To make the interest rate subsidy programme more effective, the provincial branches of the Vietnamese Farmers’ Association have been urged to help farmers fulfill formalities for preferential bank loans.
Developer tees up houses
In a situation of complaints and criticism from the community about the provincial authorities’ licensing of so many golf course projects across the country, a foreign investor has been seeking permission to build "houses for rent and sale" on the land of a licensed golf course project.
Noble Assets Pte. Ltd. of Singapore has been seeking to renew the licence for the Van Tri Golf Course project which has been implemented by Noble Viet Nam Ltd., a joint venture between Thai and Vietnamese companies, since mid-2003.
In a dispatch sent to the Government office dated May 19, 2009, Phi Thai Binh, deputy chairman of the Ha Noi People’s Committee, said the new developer had sought permission from the Vietnamese authorities to turn the investment licence for the joint venture golf course project into a 100-per-cent foreign-invested company, adding a clause that allows the company to build houses for rent and for sale on the licensed.
Under the Foreign Investment Law, any transfer of ownership without legal capital refunding in foreign-invested enterprises must be approved by the Prime Minister.
Construction of the Van Tri Golf Course project, which is located on 128 hectares in Dong Anh District’s Kim No Commune, has encountered protests from local residents since 1995 because it eats up to 93 ha of arable land in the commune.
When land compensation was finished in 1999, construction was again delayed because Daeha Ltd. (South Korea), the first developer of the project, was seriously affected by the regional financial crisis.
In late 2004, Noble Viet Nam – the new owner of the golf course project – started construction of the Van Tri Golf Course, after providing "financial support" of VND6 million to each of 448 households affected by the project.
Le Hung Vong
vietnamnews
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