Investors who have recently entered the market are developing large-scale projects using modern professional technology. Some Vietnamese projects are joint ventures with foreign companies such as De Heus. Other mostly large companies such as CP Vietnam already have poultry integrations in Vietnam but don’t yet have a processing plant. Keeping close contact with the Ministry of Agriculture, Marel is the ideal partner for aiding Vietnam’s crucial steps towards industrial poultry processing.
CP Vietnam
CP Vietnam is to establish a greenfield poultry processing plant in the Binh Phuoc Province. It will feature two identical parallel processing lines both fully equipped with Marel poultry systems and solutions. With a capacity of 2x 6.000 bph [2x 100 bpm], the plant has been designed with a future increase to 2 x 9.000 bph [2x 150 bpm] in mind. Following a local live bird supply line, Marel’s scope of supply includes complete primary, chilling and cut-up processes. When combined with Innova PDS, this will allow CP Vietnam to offer full product traceability, one of the key aspects of the project.
The killing line will include a Marel Water Bath Stunner, a scalder and three pluckers per line. The evisceration department will be fully automated, consisting of a VC-16 Vent Cutter, VO-20 Opening Machine, Nuova eviscerator and sophisticated post evisceration carousels. Giblet harvesting (gizzards, livers, hearts) will be completely automated.
The same goes for feet processing (scalding, skinning and chilling). CP Vietnam has opted for an advanced chilling configuration featuring combined immersion and air chilling. The in-line immersion water chilling system provides a fast pre-chill and can also be used to give birds a whiter presentation. Products, which are still in line, then enter the DownFlow Plus air chilling tunnel, complete with moisteners at bends in the overhead conveyor. This is a first for Vietnam as the market is traditionally focused on water screw chilled products. Air chilling will allow CP Vietnam to offer full traceability and superior product quality and shelf life. The entire in-line chilling configuration will also save labor.
In the distribution area two IRIS systems (front and back) and a SmartWeigher ensure that products are assessed correctly. Products suitable for sale whole are released, after which some of them will be manually deboned. Product selected for cut-up goes to an ACM-NT system, which cuts tails, necks, wing tips, anatomic legs, midwings (with or without tip), drummettes and whole wings.
Green Chicken- De Heus
De Heus Vietnam is one of the pioneering companies developing safe food value chains in Vietnam. De Heus and Vinh Anh have joined up to form the Green Chicken LLC company and are building a completely new broiler and duck processing plant. This facility is located in Ha Binh Phuong Industrial Park, Hanoi, and will employ more than 500 workers.
Together with Marel, Green Chicken has configured the project as a combined duck/broiler processing plant with a capacity of 1.000 dph / 2.000 bph [16 dpm / 33 bpm]. All products pass through Marel scalding and plucking equipment. Only the ducks go additionally through the waxing process, typically needed for ducks. Evisceration is done manually for both species. With the help of a washer and peeler, feet are carefully processed too, as poultry feet are valuable products in Vietnam. After water chilling in a spin chiller, products are calibrated by weight range, as Green Chicken sells its ducks and broilers mainly as whole products.
The Vietnamese market
For decades the domestic husbandry industry has produced poultry products mainly for the local market. The market is, however, changing, as consumers now want better food safety. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has released a national plan for monitoring food safety for processed chicken.
Minister of Agriculture Nguyen Xuan Cuong will help enterprises build processing facilities, which ensure veterinary hygiene and food safety. “Only companies with good logistics can be competitive. If firms want to export their products, they must invest in closed-loop production or apply modern processing technology. To compete in export markets, Vietnamese enterprises should know which products consumers in export markets want to buy. For instance, firms should boost exports of chicken breast while selling thighs and wings on the domestic Vietnamese market.”
Target markets for Vietnamese firms exporting chicken meat include Japan, China and the Philippines. Potential markets include Saudi Arabia, South Africa and UAE. Poultry export figures reached more than $18 million in 2018. Today, both productivity and profits are increasing, turning poultry farming from a secondary occupation into a main job in agricultural production. Poultry numbers have increased by an average of more than 6% annually. In 2018, output exceeded 1.1 million tons of poultry meat.