Building a high-tech fruit and fruit juice processing factory in Son La

Phu Huong• January 29, 2018 09:00

(Baonghean) - Realizing the aspiration of bringing many types of clean products to consumers, after the Nui Tien Pure Water and Fruit Juice Factory Project in Nghe An, TH Group continues to build a high-tech fruit and fruit juice processing factory in Son La.

Enhance the value of Vietnamese agricultural products
The groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the factory was held on January 25, 2018, in Van Ho district, which is expected to be a "push" for Son La province to exploit the potential of growing fruit trees. The project has an investment of 1,200 billion VND, phase 1 has a processing capacity of 30,000 tons of fruit/year, which is considered to be the leading scale in Vietnam today in the field of fruit processing. In particular, this is the first factory in Vietnam to process juice and concentrated juice from oranges and longans.

Bà Thái Hương phát biểu tại lễ khởi công. Ảnh: P.H

Ms. Thai Huong speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony. Photo: PH

Mr. Cam Ngoc Minh - Chairman of Son La Provincial People's Committee shared: Son La currently has 42,600 hectares of fruit trees, has built 47 production, supply and consumption chains in agriculture; has formed concentrated, safe and high-quality vegetable, root and fruit material areas in the area. However, land resources have not been exploited effectively. The province's goal by 2020 is to have a fruit tree growing area of up to 100,000 hectares. TH Group's fruit processing factories will be the nucleus for the province to continue to build specialty fruit growing areas, bringing Son La's fruit brand far and wide.

With the determination to bring agricultural production in general, and the field of growing and processing fruit products of Son La in particular, to a new "level", both increasing production value and creating a stable source of consumption for farmers, during the implementation period, the Project has received strong support from local authorities, quickly completing investment procedures and handing over clean land. Up to this point, the total area planned for the project is 14.03 hectares, of which the planned area for phase 1 is 4.9 hectares and has been handed over.
Also in Van Ho district, TH Group is continuing to survey to implement the Son La Vegetable, Fruit and Medicinal Herbs Development Project. The project is expected to grow specialty fruit trees and medicinal herbs with an investment scale of 1,100 billion VND, creating raw materials on an area of over 1,000 hectares.

Tập đoàn TH khởi công Nhà máy chế biến quả và nước hoa quả công nghệ cao Sơn La. Ảnh: P.H

TH Group starts construction of Son La high-tech fruit and fruit juice processing factory. Photo: PH

TH Group representative said: The investment capital for the 1,200 billion VND project will be carried out in 2 phases. Phase 1 will invest 300 billion VND to build a factory to process fruits such as oranges, longans, mangoes, passion fruits, and hawthorns with product lines including squeezed longan juice, concentrated orange juice, concentrated passion fruit juice; products processed from mangoes and hawthorns. Products of phase 1 will be distributed wholesale (B2B) to factories producing fruit juice and other products containing fruit; Phase 2 will invest 900 billion VND to build a factory to produce products including orange juice, longan juice, and pure bottled passion fruit juice.

Son La high-tech fruit and fruit juice processing factory phase 1 has a designed capacity of 100 tons of fruit/day, equivalent to 30,000 tons/year. The factory uses the most modern and fully automatic extraction technology installed by Riekermann GMBH of Germany. The equipment is manufactured by Bertuzzi of Italy - the world's number 1 manufacturer of specialized fruit processing equipment today.
Linking the value chain
TH Group plans to cooperate with farmers in key fruit growing areas in Son La such as Van Ho, Moc Chau, Mai Son, Bac Yen, Phu Yen districts to build fruit growing areas, with the orientation of linking farmers through cooperatives, building production chains. Cooperatives will act as a link in the product value chain led by enterprises, providing production plans, technical standards as well as product quality requirements; the group will provide guidance on cultivation and processing techniques. The project will create jobs for nearly 200 workers working directly at the factory and thousands of indirect workers in Son La province; at the same time, it is considered a highlight in the process of building a clean, organic food ecosystem, processing product lines "completely from nature", "fresh, delicious, nutritious".

Tập đoàn TH nhận quà lưu niệm tại buổi lễ khởi công. Ảnh: P.H

TH Group received souvenirs at the groundbreaking ceremony. Photo: PH

Ms. Thai Huong - Founder of TH Group shared: "I was born a farmer and always wanted to help farmers have less hardship but still have a good income. That can only be achieved by applying technology to create the best quality products. I use that secret to do agriculture, create jobs, and increase income for people".

Officially becoming a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007, up to now, the countries participating in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) are mainly related to the agricultural sector. Ms. Thai Huong commented that if not careful, Vietnam will change from an agricultural production country to a consumer market for advanced countries. At that time, domestic products will be increasingly disadvantaged. Therefore, at the conference chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, the Cooperative Alliance (Cooperatives) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development recently, Ms. Thai Huong had a direction to guide TH Group to participate in establishing a product chain in which the Cooperative is the center connecting farmers and businesses. "Enterprises do not own land but only cooperate with farmers to implement the value chain, apply science and technology to create products of international quality, increase the value of Vietnamese agricultural products for domestic consumption and export", Ms. Thai Huong emphasized. That will be applied immediately in Son La.
Besides, she said that she will always focus on preserving the unique identities of each region, developing agriculture alongside tourism: "We are determined, people have the right to be proud of their land Son La".

According to research by TH Group, the market for non-carbonated soft drinks increased by 10% while that for carbonated soft drinks decreased by 5%. This shows that, along with the general trend in the world, Vietnamese consumers have paid attention to choosing soft drinks of natural origin, rich in vitamins and minerals, and low in chemicals. TH Group's investment in processing fruits and fruit drinks completely from nature will help consumers have more options to use products that are good for their health.