During his visit to TH Group’s high-tech agricultural projects in March 2023 in the central province of Nghe An, Australian Ambassador to Vietnam Andrew Goledzinowski was impressed at what he saw at the dairy farm cluster and fresh milk plant, in the meadows of Thai Hoa town’s Dong Hieu commune.

TH Group showing the way in Vietnam-Australia ties

At the Nui Tien water, herbal, and fruit juice processing plant and at the $1.2-billion high-tech centralised dairy farming and processing complex, both in Nghia Dan district, TH Group founder Thai Huong and other leaders introduced the group’s vision and strategy to the ambassador.

“I am quite impressed at the complex, which is an exemplary model on development of the green economy, knowledge-based economy, and circular economy,” Ambassador Goledzinowski said. “This is one of the highlights of the two nations’ strategic partnership, and also one of the biggest achievements in both countries’ economic cooperation.”

Australia is now the seventh-biggest trade partner of Vietnam, and wishes to boost the investment ties between the two countries, the Ambassador added.

Initiated in 2009, the high-tech centralised dairy farming and processing complex is seen as an exceptional success story, with its TH true MILK brand name currently known far and wide. It uses state-of-the-art technologies and currently has nearly 70,000 dairy cows, and has been recognised as the world’s largest high-tech centralised dairy farming and processing complex by the World Records Union from Worldkings.

All stages, from dairy cow care and food processing to milking and product wrapping, are automatically implemented. This complex’s model has been expanded overseas, with Australia being a big investment destination for TH Group.

Currently, the company occupies 45 per cent of Vietnam’s fresh milk market share. It has also been among six top businesses selected by the Vietnamese and Australian governments to implement the Vietnam-Australia Business Champions Initiative. The initiative was unveiled by the Vietnamese minister of Planning and Investment and the Australian minister of Trade, Tourism, and Investment in 2021, aiming to support the two countries to become among the 10 top trade partners of each other and to double two-way investment.

TH Group has since 2019 made a large-scale agricultural investment in Australia by acquiring and developing three beef farms in Northern and Western Australia with an investment of A$130 million ($86.57 million).

At present, this initiative boasts more than 775,000 hectares of land and over 62,000 wild-grazing beef cattle, supplying beef to the Australian market and exporting to many other countries.

Since the investment, TH has continuously strengthened the farm’s capacity, increased profits, and contributed to promoting local economic development. With this project, TH is currently the largest Vietnamese enterprise in Australia.

According to Thai Huong, Australia boasts many natural advantages which are favourable for agricultural production development and trading. This works well with TH Group’s strategy on large-scale agricultural development, Huong added.

“At present, the three farms at our agricultural projects in Australia are the top-performing in the country,” Huong explained. “I have spoken with the administrator of the Northern Territory of Australia about our investment plan. We hope that we will continue being supported in our projects to develop organic foodstuff plants. We would need large-scale land areas and the Australian government’s assistance in the development of watering systems which will benefit not only our projects but also residents.”

This will accordingly help ensure food security and local residents will have a good income source, as will Australian businesses, Huong added.