18 March 2014
Matt Brann
ABC Rural
The Red Star Company in Vietnam has spent the last two years, and around $US5 million, building an ‘agriculture complex’ to cater for Australian cattle.
At a meeting last week with delegates from the Northern Territory Government, Red Star’s director general, Mr Nhi, proudly announced his facility was ready to start importing Australian livestock.
The Red Star Agricultural Complex is nothing short of impressive.
In the Dak Lak Province, north-west of Nha Trang, the company has built from scratch an integrated farming system that includes a feedlot, abattoir and 1,500 hectares of nearby farmland to grow feed for the cattle.
Mr Nhi says he’s looking forward to the first cattle arriving from Australia.
“We are intending to import our first shipment (of cattle) in April and in the first week of May,” he said.
“And everyone is very excited, because as soon as we started building this project, there have been many people checking on when the cattle will come… visitors and locals say this looks like an international airport, not a feedlot.”
Mr Nhi says other companies are importing cattle from countries such as Cambodia, but he is only interested in Australian cattle because the “quality is better”.
He says beef processed at his facility will be sold mostly to those living in the Dak Lak province and the complex will directly employ about 60 people once the cattle arrive.
Ben Hindle, from the NT Livestock Exporters Association, says the work done by Red Star to meet the requirements of handling Australian cattle has been impressive and exporters will be doing all they can to supply its needs.
“The three exporters working to export cattle to Vietnam, have Vietnam at the front of their mind,” he said.
“They understand the needs and wants for Vietnam and are rapidly increasing their scale and their project-based management to get a lot more cattle into this country.
“Given the scale and the operation here, together with the investment through our country too, I think it’s a perfect fit.”
Courtesy of ABC Rural