Vietnam's NutiFood launches dairy factory in Sweden

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — The tripartite joint venture of Nutifood, Backahill Group, and The Cooperative of Skånemejerier Ekonomisk Förening dairy farms officially announced the operation of NutiFood Sweden AB Dairy Factory on May 27. The announcement was witnessed by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Phuc together with his high-ranking delegation came from the invitation of Swedish Prime Minister Löfven to celebrate the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Sweden and Vietnam. NutiFood was the first big dairy enterprise of Vietnam to be invited to the event.

NutiFood Sweden AB factory is NutiFood's investment project (owning 50% of the capital) with the Backahill Group of Swedish billionaire Erik Paulsson (25% capital) and Skånemejerier Ekonomisk Förening (25% capital).

“We chose NutiFood because it is a company founded by nutrition experts and has many years of production experience, as well as experience in exporting and selling milk and dairy products to many countries. Moreover, NutiFood has a strong position in specialized nutritional products, leading in this segment in Vietnam for years, and also is listed in the top 40 most valuable brands in Vietnam by Forbes," Paulsson said. 

"In particular, we are very impressed when NutiFood has obtained the US FDA certificate with very strict conditions to bring its products into the market. We also highly appreciate NutiFood's community activities and efforts to protect the environment. In addition, NutiFood's abundant financial capacity is also one of the reasons for us to choose this company,” he said.

In the first phase, The NutiFood Sweden AB factory is worth nearly $20 million investment, with a total yearly capacity of 15,000 tons including 5,000 tons of infant formula and 10,000 tons of baby food. The factory is run by experienced professionals from famous dairy and food corporations worldwide.

The factory will produce baby cereals, porridge, organic powder milk for babies and young children, particularly a special range of goat milk infant formula.

NutiFood Sweden AB factory is located in Bjuv in Southern Sweden. Photo Release

“NutiFood is proud to be the first Vietnamese enterprise to invest in Sweden. In our strategy of reaching out to the world, we have conquered the US market, this is the next step for us to conquer the European market," said Tran Thanh Hai, chairman of NutiFood's Board of Directors.

"We chose Sweden because it is the world's leading high-quality organic food supplier, especially milk. Sweden is one of the three countries with the lowest use of antibiotics in livestock and has the best natural climate conditions to develop livestock breeding," Hai said.

"We expect organic dairy products produced by cooperative of Vietnamese and Swedish to be available worldwide. NutiFood is committed to doing its best to demonstrate the capacity of Vietnamese people, contributing to good relations between the two countries," Hai added.

After completing Phase 2 investment, the factory plans to produce sterilized organic fresh milk and premium organic powdered milk in tin cans. The distribution of these will not only be in Europe and Asia but the rest of the global markets. Some products will be officially available in Vietnam in the third quarter of 2019.

NutiFood Sweden AB factory is located in Bjuv, which is known as the best agricultural area in Northern Europe, surrounded by around 2,500 farms that are up to organic standards. Sweden is famous the world over for its top organic milk quality and is one of the top three countries in Europe (alongside Norway and Iceland) to use the lowest antibiotics for sick animals.

After nearly 20 years, NutiFood has earned a good position in the market and in consumers’ hearts. For three years running, its special product for stunted and malnourished children, GrowPLUS +, has been honored by Nielsen, an international market research organization, taking the top spot in the dairy industry in Vietnam. From 2017-2018, NutiFood has been the number 1 powdered milk product.