De Heus officially opened its new aquafeed mill at Tra Noc Industrial Zone, Can Tho, Vietnam on September 26. The event was attended by H.E. Phung Duc Tien, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), H.E. Daniel Stork, Consul General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ho Chi Minh City and Koen de Heus, CEO of De Heus Animal Nutrition. Besides, key leaders from several MARD departments, local authorities and more than 600 customers, partners, press agencies and De Heus representatives also attended. As part of the grand opening ceremony, the guests were invited to a tour inside the feed mill to gain firsthand insight into how high-quality products for the Mekong Delta pangasius farmers are produced.
The grand opening ceremony of De Heus Can Tho Aqua Feed Mill is an important part of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and the Netherlands. According to Daniel Stork, Consul General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ho Chi Minh City, the strong relationship between the two countries is based on long-term commitment and partnership in various fields, such as agriculture, sustainable development and water management.
The feed mill has a production capacity of 240,000 tons per year and is dedicated to producing pangasius feed. All products are manufactured using state-of-the-art European and United States production technology. The entire production process, from input to output, is controlled by a fully automated system and managed in accordance with ISO 22000, BAP and GLOBALG.A.P. standards.
“We strongly believe white fish products are amongst the most healthy, delicious and sustainable animal protein products. Therefore, we actively keep investing in building our capabilities in this sector, especially in Asia and Africa. Vietnam is positioned well to become one of the world’s most important sources of aquatic proteins. We are committed to keep developing our strategic position in Vietnam together with our local and international partners,” said at the ceremony, Koen De Heus.
“Through our innovative nutritional solutions and thorough the understanding of both local and international markets, we are constantly striving to help advance the Vietnamese fish farmers to develop successfully and sustainably. Besides, as De Heus Vietnam we try to play a coordinating role in the value chains in which we are active by supporting farmers to get access to top-quality genetics solutions, providing them with technical management solutions, access to finance and help connect them to the markets,” said Johan van den Ban, CEO of De Heus Vietnam.
The strategic location near the river port provides outstanding advantages for transporting raw materials to the plant and finished products to farmers. De Heus has developed an innovative bulk feed transportation system for pangasius feed. Based on this model, floating aquafeed products can be transported efficiently from feed mill to farms by river. This results in significant cost reductions, a much smaller greenhouse gas emissions footprint due to more efficient transportation, no use of plastic packaging materials and less transportation and production losses.
De Heus entered a Memorandum of Understanding in March 2023 with partners to establish a partnership and cooperation to develop a rooftop solar power portfolio. With a total capacity of up to 20 MWp, this portfolio is Vietnam's largest rooftop solar project in 2023. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2024. Specifically, the 458 kWp system at the Can Tho aquafeed mill is projected to prevent 470 tons of CO2 each year.
