Vietnam Agribusiness (VAL), a joint venture between Bunge Global and Singapore’s Wilmar International, has inaugurated its second soyabean crushing line, World Grain wrote.
The US$100M project at Phu My 1 Industrial Park added 4,000 tonnes/day to the company’s processing capacity, the 23 December report said.
Combined with the first soyabean crushing line, which had been in operation since 2011, the company’s total crushing capacity now totalled 7,800 tonnes/day.
“The inauguration of our second soyabean crushing line marks a pivotal milestone in VAL’s long-term strategy to expand production capacity in order to meet growing demand in both domestic and international markets,” Nguyen Minh Vi, general director of VAL, was quoted as saying.
“It reflects our … commitment to supporting Vietnam’s livestock industry and advancing the nation’s strategic goal of securing essential raw materials.”
Featuring eight high-capacity storage silos totalling 120,000 tonnes, the facility integrates a waste-heat recovery and reuse system for reduced energy consumption, and a closed-loop water circulation system.
At full capacity, both crushing lines would be able to process up to 2.6M tonnes/year of soyabeans, producing nearly 2M tonnes of soyabean meal to meet about 30% of Vietnam’s domestic animal feed demand, VAL said.
Vietnam’s livestock industry has consistently grown at an annual rate of 3%-5% over the past two decades, according to the report.
The plant would also produce more than 500,000 tonnes/year of crude soyabean oil for domestic consumption and export markets, the company said.
The 10 December inauguration ceremony was attended by US Ambassador Marc E Knapper; Singapore Ambassador Rajpal Singh; Kuok Khoon Hong, chairman and CEO of Wilmar; Gregory Heckman, CEO of Bunge; and local government leaders, strategic partners and members of the companies’ management boards.
Speaking about the project, Heckman was quoted as saying: “This achievement means more than increased capacity; it strategically secures essential raw materials for Vietnam’s own livestock and food industries.”
According to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce, VAL is focused on oilseed processing for food and feed products.
