Nestle, the world’s largest food company, plans to increase its direct purchases of coffee from Vietnamese farmers by fivefold in the next five years.
Nestle, the world’s largest food company, plans to increase its direct purchases of coffee from Vietnamese farmers by fivefold in the next five years.
Accordingly, Nestle Vietnam Ltd may buy about 60,000 tonnes of coffee from Vietnamese farmers each year, compared with 12,000-14,000 tonnes this year.
Managing Director Rashid Qureshi affirmed this in a recent interview, saying that the Switzerland-based company started buying coffee directly from farmers late last year.
Qureshi said at present, Nestle buys 200,000-250,000 tonnes of Vietnamese coffee a year.
Experts forecast the 2011-2012 harvest was a record 1.55 million tonnes, according to a Bloomberg survey.
The International Coffee Organisation (ICO) forecast Vietnam’s production in the season ending this month may gain 7.9 percent to 21 million bags (60-kilogram bags.
Nestle invested in a procurement centre in Dak Lak, the main coffee-growing region, and set up a mill there to process beans, Qureshi said. Coffee consumption in Vietnam may double over the next decade, and Nestle’s sales of coffee products may see double-digit growth every year in the period.
Nestle will start producing soluble coffee, mainly for local sale, at a US$270 million plant in Dong Nai province in November after a first phase of construction is completed, Qureshi said. A second phase will be finished next year, with production of decaffeinated coffee planned for export, he said.
(Source:VN Net)
