VIETNAM – Vinamilk, Nutifood hold line on prices – May, 12 2011

HA NOI — Vinamilk and Nutifood, two leading manufacturers of dairy products and baby food, signed an agreement not to increase the prices of milk powder for children under 12 months and the elderly until the end of the year.

The deal took place during a meeting on Tuesday with the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade regarding the City’s price stabilisation programme.

Le Ngoc Dao, deputy director of the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade, said that the two companies were set to complete price registration at the City Department of Finance for appraisal. Retail prices on the two lines of products would be announced early next week.

In addition, to support business, the City department, in coordination with relevant departments, will disclose nutritional indicators on milk products in the market to enable consumers to choose the best products.

The current number of goods includes 6,000-6,300 tonnes of products which accounts for around 30-35 per cent of market demand in terms of children and the elderly in HCM City.

HCM City is currently implementing a price stabilisation programme aimed at four commodity groups including food, medicine, milk and other items in preparation for the coming school season. Total programme spending is set to reach VND412 billion (US$19.8 million).

The two companies committed to keep dairy prices unchanged until the end of 2011, despite possible increases in input cost, and both companies are not subject to capital support by the City authority.

Tran Huu Duc, head of the external affairs department at Nutifood, said that his company selected the two lines of products in commitment to better support child and elderly consumers. — VNS

In response to potential market price fluctuations, Duc said that his company planned to balance income and expenditure in terms of other products in order to help keep prices stable. — VNS

Information VNS

VIETNAM – Vinamilk deals with European partners to improve milk quality for children

On March 1, Vietnam Milk Joint-stock Company (Vinamilk) signed a cooperative deal with DSM Group, Lonza Company (Swiss) and Chr. Hansen Grop, Denmark on research and nutrition science application to developing specific nutritional products for Vietnamese children.

The deal is expected to help the sides further expand cooperation, with the focus on five major areas, including: promoting information exchange, researching and developing new products, giving clinical assessment about the efficiency of products and assisting the construction of laboratory for testing food hygiene and safety, training expert staff to research and develop products and using trademarks.

“Vinamilk’s nutrition strategy in the next three years is to promote research into the nutrition reality of Vietnamese, especially children,” said Mr. Nguyen Quoc Khanh, Executive Director of R&D and Production, Vinamilk.

Mr. Khanh said that the close cooperation with the world leading nutrition partners will help Vinamilk apply modern scientific achivements to bring about significant nutritional measures which fits the specific needs of Vietnamese.

Lonza is a company expert in researching and supplying materials for life science with 28 factories worldwide. Its turnover reached nearly 2.7 billion Swiss francs in 2010.

Chr. Hansen is expert in researching the sciences of food, nutrition, health and agriculture, with a turnover of Euro 576 million in the 2009-2010 period.

DSM provides nutrition material methods with an annual turnover of 9.3 billion.

A study of 50,000 children from two to five years old in 63 provinces and cities showed that low weight for age (underweight) malnutrition rate accounts for 19.62% while low height for age (stunting) malnutrition rate was 29.05%, reported the National Institute for Nutrition.

Information Vietnam news today.com

VIETNAM – Vinamilk ties knot with three European partners

HCM CITY — Dairy giant Vinamilk yesterday signed agreements for nutritional research and application with three European firms in Zurich, Switzerland.

The three, DSM and Lonza of Switzerland and Chr. Hansen of Denmark, specialise in research, development and application of micro-nutrition and bio-science.

Vinamilk has been working with them for liquid milk, spoon yoghurt products, and, especially, its Dielac baby formula.

The company said official signing would take the co-operation a step further, especially in key areas like exchanging market information, new products research and development, clinical evaluation of product efficiency and support in development of lab for food safety control. They also planned to work together in training.

In 2009, Vinamilk and the Viet Nam National Institute of Nutrition did a study on the nutritional situation of Vietnamese children in different age groups focusing on nutritional features, daily rations, and the deficiency of micro-nutrition.

Armed with this knowledge, Vinamilk has since strategically developed products appropriate for Vietnamese children’s needs and development.

“Our strategy for the next three years is to continuously enhance the research on the nutritional situation, especially of Vietnamese children,” Nguyen Quoc Khanh, Vinamilk’s director of research, development, and production, said at the signing ceremony.

“Moreover, our strategic co-operation with world- leading partners will significantly support us in applying the most advanced nutritional science.”

The 2009 study, done in 63 cities and provinces of more than 50,000 children aged between 2 and 5, found almost half of them were malnourished to different levels.

Vinamilk is set to introduce Dielac Pedia, a tailor-made food for inappetent kids, developed in co-operation with its partners.

It focuses on factors that cause the lack of appetite in kids, including a weak digestive system and absorption ability.

Lonza is a supplier to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and life-science industry. Chr. Hansen is a bioscience company that develops natural ingredient solutions for the food, nutritional, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries, while DSM is a health and nutritional-ingredient solutions provider.

Information VNS

Vietnam – Vinamilk raises milk input price by VND500/L

Vietnam Dairy Products Joint-Stock Company (Vinamilk), the biggest milk producer in Vietnam, has raise the prices of milk input by VND500/liter to VND10,100/kg this morning

Vietnam Dairy Products Joint-Stock Company (Vinamilk), the biggest milk producer in Vietnam, has raise the prices of milk input by VND500/liter to VND10,100/kg this morning, the online newspaper Tuoitre reported on Jan 6.

This is the third time in six months the company has raised the price of milk input with an total increase of VND1,950/kg.

Earlier, on December 22, the domestic milk price was predicted to increase by between 3%-10% from the beginning of January 2011, the local newspaper Thanhnien reported on December 22, citing the local milk agencies in Ho Chi Minh City. – Stoxplus.com

Information from VietnamBusinessAsia

Vietnam – Finance ministry looks into Vinamilk’s price hike

Vietnam’s Finance Ministry is verifying whether leading dairy firm Vinamilk was justified in hiking prices last week, news website VnExpress reported Monday.

Vinamilk, which holds a one-third share of Vietnam’s dairy market, increased prices of various products by at least 6 percent.

According to a statement from Vinamilk, the hikes were necessary as material costs continued to surge and the company needed to offer higher prices to dairy farmers.

Vinamilk has submitted its reasons to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Finance, where the company is required to register its product prices.

But VnExpress cited a Finance Ministry official as saying that based on customs data, prices of most imported materials have been stable.

“If other companies also imported the same materials and could keep their prices stable, it’s not reasonable for Vinamilk to hike its prices,” the unnamed official said.

Vietnam aims to control consumer prices this year, after inflation hit 11.75 percent in 2010. Many companies, including major dairy firms, have been ordered to register their prices to the authorities.

Information from ThanhnienNews