Mai Quốc Tuấn

Nguyễn Thị Mai Trang

Marketing class

13/12/2010

Building A Sustainable Dairy Industry

SaigonTimes - Jan Bles, managing director of FrieslandCampina Vietnam

(FCV), talks with the Weekly about the company’s business and community

commitments in Vietnam.

FCV has thousands of farmers that supply more than 60 million kilos of fresh milk every

year for the company. FCV supplies over 1.5 billion consumer units of milk for the

Vietnamese market. What do you think about the numbers?

We continue to see great potential for dairy development in Vietnam. We want to increase the

capacity of fresh milk intake every year. More and more people realize that drinking milk will

help them grow strong and stay healthy. We are proud that our high quality products like Dutch

Lady, Friso and YoMost are preferred by Vietnamese.

Is this the reason why FCV has just invested another US$10 million in expanding the dairy

factory in Binh Duong Province?

Last year, we invested US$30 million in the second plant in the North. This year we invested

US$10 million in the plant in the South. The money is partly being used to run the latest

technologies at the plant to either reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the

environment or reduce energy costs. We are also investing in technology to improve food safety

for Vietnamese consumers and also double the capacity of the plant.

FCV has always stated its commitment to carrying out sustainable investment in Vietnam

and improving living standards of Vietnamese people for the past 15 years. In your

opinion, how has FCV carried out these commitments?

Not only it is important for us to have successful business but also we are part of Vietnam, so we

want to be a responsible citizen. FCV’s business strategy is based on sustainable development.

Across the world, sustainability includes economic, social and environmental factors. Therefore

we set three principles to guide us, including a sustainable dairy development program (helping

Vietnamese dairy farmers for a sustainable dairy farming in Vietnam), Den Dom Dom program

(building schools and supporting needy students for their brighter future) and dairy nutrition

program (bettering Vietnamese health).

FCV is helping Vietnam develop a sustainable dairy industry. Could you give some details

about this?

Worldwide, we have more than 135 years of commitment to sustainable dairy. Our most

advanced knowledge and 135 years of experience in dairy worldwide have been transferred to

Vietnam. We have applied our unique entire dairy production chain “from grass to glass” to

ensure the food safety and quality of our products supplied to the Vietnam market.
Over the past 15 years, we have also deployed the dairy development program to train dairy

farming technology and management for more than 2,600 Vietnamese farmers, with a budget of

about US$1 million/year. We support Vietnamese farmers to produce high quality milk and have

better productivity for their sustainable development. We also have a program, called “Farmers

help farmers,” where every year we invite experienced Dutch farmers to Vietnam for two months

to work and share their knowledge and experience with Vietnamese farmers.

About the Den Dom Dom program, why did FCV decide to carry out the program eight

years ago?

I have visited many different places in Vietnam, witnessed many children coming to school with

bare feet or in places like Quang Binh, there are children studying in extremely old or under-

equipped schools. As you and I know, children and their education are the future of a nation, so

we decided there is something that needs to be done to help those children overcome obstacles

and difficulties so that they will have a better study environment. However, just simply helping

them is not enough, we also would like to lend a hand to build a better education system by

concrete action such as building new schools for a better study environment, and this was the

start of the Den Dom Dom program.

The program is aimed at contributing to the development of Vietnam’s education system, by

helping students overcome difficulties and obstacles to have a better study environment and

conditions in remote areas.

Over the past eight years, the program has already handed over 18,000 scholarships and

built six schools in localities across Vietnam. What do you think about the results?
The greatest gift is to see happiness of those students coming to school and there are students

who have received the Den Dom Dom scholarships that are now qualified for university level.

For example, Bui Duc Hung from Binh Duong Province, who had received Den Dom Dom

scholarship three times, was admitted to University of Science. If you could see the happiness of

students and teachers in remote areas at the opening ceremonies of Den Dom Dom schools, you

would understand how happy we are when we see students running into classes, touching every

blackboard, every chair and table, they even smell the freshness of the new walls. That is the

time I feel the spirit of “Sharing is Happiness” more than ever.

What are the plans of Den Dom Dom program next year?

Our next goal for Den Dom Dom program is to spread the program of “Sharing is Happiness” to

the community, so that Den Dom Dom is not only the contribution of Dutch Lady, but also the

effort of the whole community, so that needy children can have opportunities to live a better life.

We expect that next year, the number of scholarships will exceed 20,000 and not only one Den

Dom Dom school will be built, but there would be two or three schools built from the

contribution of the community.

At the meeting between Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and FrieslandCampina

Group’s Wantenaar Cornelis Hendrikus during his visit to Vietnam in September, Triet

suggested that FCV should invest in its third factory in the central region after factories in

Binh Duong (in the south) and Ha Nam (in the north). What do you think about the

suggestion? Will FCV make a plan for this?

At the meeting, Mr. Hendrikus acknowledged to the President’s suggestion to open our third

plant in Vietnam. Obviously, we will choose carefully a location for a plant. At present we have

a big dairy warehouse in the central city of Danang that supplies our products for the region

besides two factories in the northern and southern regions. We are aiming to open a new factory

in the central region when conditions permitted and when it is feasible.

Reported by Quang Tuan

Criticism about the article:

This article is a promotion activity of FrieslandCampina Vietnam company. And it promotion

method is publicity. Jan Bles, managing director of FrieslandCampina Vietnam, had an

impressive interview because his interview contains a lot of company’s information, advertising

and community commitments in Vietnam. Such as:

_ To advertise about itself: increasing in capacity of fresh milk – increasing products, its

brand such as Dutch Lady, Friso and YoMost.

_ To mention about the benefits of drinking milk in a subtle way.

_ To use the latest technologies to supply safe food and reduce carbon dioxide.

_ To declare about its community commitments: helping Vietnamese dairy farmers,

building schools and supporting needy students for their brighter future and bettering Vietnamese

health.

_ Many programs the company has set such as: Den Dom Dom program, farmers help

farmers and dairy nutrition.

_ To emphasize on the Den Dom Dom program, to let the audiences know about its

achievements in the present and the plan for the future.

In summary, this interview is a publicity activity – a promotion activity and it is very successful

because it can advertise about itself and make the customer see that FrieslandCampina Vietnam

is a big company which has brought a lot of value for the customer and society.