Cherry fruit will be chilling in new Tien Giang plant

June 04, 2013 | 10:11
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One of Japan’s top producers of frozen food and a leader in cooling storage warehousing is building a fruit processing plant in southern Vietnam.


illustration photo

Nichirei Corporation’s VND90 billion ($4.3 million) plant, to be located in Tien Giang province’s Go Cong Dong district, will process 7,000 tonnes of cherry fruit per year.

The project is slated for completion in March 2014 and the products will be supplied to Nichirei’s fruit juice factories in Japan.

“The Japanese firm has picked Tien Giang as only cherries in Go Cong Dong district reach the firm’s standards,” said Nguyen Hong Minh, deputy director of Tien Giang Provincial Department of Planning and Investment.

Nichirei has entered into a joint venture with the local firm Hiep Phat to set up a cherry tree research centre in the province. Last year, Nichirei Foods, an arm of Nichirei Corporation, entered the Vietnamese processed food market by taking a 19 per cent share worth $6.25 million in Cholimex, one of Vietnam’s biggest providers of spices and an exporter of frozen food to Europe.

Tien Giang province, some 70 kilometres from Ho Chi Minh City and 90km from the Mekong Delta’s Can Tho city, is within the southern key economic zone. Its geographical location and natural conditions are favourable for growing fruit trees with high export values, such as mangoes, star apples, durians, dragon fruit, longan, cherries and grape fruit. In addition, with a coastline of 32km, Tien Giang boasts potential for developing fisheries and tourism.

Minh said Tien Giang was encouraging investors in the fields of agriculture, development industrial parks and infrastructure under the build-operate-transfer model.

As of late April 2013, the province was home to 52 foreign invested projects, capitalised at $1.15 billion. Leading foreign investors in the province are from Japan, South Korea, the US and Thailand.

By By Kieu Linh

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