THACO sent first bananas to China

Agriculture production and processing company THADI yesterday sent off thirty containers of bananas weighing 20 tonnes to Qingdao in China from Chu Lai port in Quang Nam province. 

The shipment, which is the outcome of nine-month cultivation, is valued at $9,000 per tonne.

THADI chairman Do Xuan Dien revealed that the company would export high-quality products at reasonable prices.

THADI plans to build a modern fruit and agricultural product processing factory in Chu Lai open economic zone where Truong Hai Auto Corporation (THACO) yesterday broke ground for construction of a 451ha agricultural and forestry industrial park.

This $104 million factory has a total capacity of 500,000 tonnes of fruit and farm products each year. The first phase of the project is expected to be put into operation by June 2020 with a capacity of 200,000 tonnes per year.

Truong Hai Auto Corporation has signed an agreement with Hoang Anh Gia Lai Agricultural Company on exporting 300,000 tonnes of fruit worth $250 million this year and a target of one million tonnes by 2021.

Earlier, under an agreement signed with Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group last August, THACO was set to invest in two subsidiaries of the former group, including Hoang Anh Gia Lai Agricultural Company and property development company Hoang Anh Gia Lai Myanmar Center.

THACO spent over $163 million to buy convertible bonds of Hoang Anh Gia Lai Agricultural Company in return for a 35 per cent stake.

Over the past seven months, THACO has advanced over $453 million to Hoang Anh Gia Lai Agricultural Company to restructure debts and convert a part of rubber and oil palm plantation area into fruit plantations.

THADI yesterday inked a series of cooperation agreements with partners from China, Germany, and Italy in supplying fruit processing lines, factory design and construction as well as fruit and farm products distribution.

Especially, a subsidiary of China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) would import and distribute THADI’s processed fruit and farm products to their stores.

THADI will also cooperate with Wageningen University & Research from the Netherlands and five local colleges in hi-tech farm research and production as well as human resource training.