Dairy farmers to receive low-interest loans

Thăng issued the instruction during a working visit to Vinamilk’s dairy factory in Bến Cát District in Bình Dương Province on February 2.

During the visit, Mai Kiều Liên, the CEO of Vinamilk, asked city authorities to allow Vinamilk to apply new husbandry technology and new dairy cow breeders in a pilot project in the first quarter.

Liên said the average capacity of dairy cows for private farmers was low, around 17-18 litres of milk per cow per day, mostly due to the low quality of dairy breeders. The number is 30 litres at Vinamilk farms.

Vinamilk had planned to import dairy cow breeders from the US and New Zealand, to feed them in the beginning in order to let them be familiar with Vietnamese weather, then transfer to farmers.

The cost for each breeder is estimated to be VNĐ50 – 60 million (US$2,200 – 2,650) and farmers would expect to recoup investment after two to three years.

“If local authorities can provide 50 per cent of the loans for farmers, Vinamilk will offer the rest without interest,” Liên said.

Thăng said the project would be long-term and offer stable income for poor farmers.

Thăng said that in the pilot project, farmer households that can feed 50 new dairy cow breeders would receive preferential loans at low interest or zero interest.

With the number of new breeders, farmers will have favourable conditions to reform their husbandry process.

The number of dairy cows in HCM City (mostly located in Củ Chi District) is around 90,000. -- VNS