The plant cost VND1.8 trillion (US$77.7 million)
Masan MEATLife, a member company of Vietnam’s FMCG giant Masan, officially put a new meat processing plant into operation in the southern province of Long An on Saturday morning.
The MEATDeli Saigon plant, situated at Tan Duc Industrial Park in Duc Hoa District, cost VND1.8 trillion (US$77.7 million) to build.
Construction on the plant started in May 2019 and was completed last month.
It can process 155,000 metric tons of chilled pork annually in the first phase.
The second phase will expand the capacity to 25,000 metric tons of processed meat a year and enable production of 14,000 metric tons of pork by-products such as blood flour, plasma, collagen, and meat and bone powder.
The plant has modern equipment sourced from Marel, a leading global supplier of advanced meat processing and slaughtering machines from the Netherlands.
It has applied for the BRC (British Retail Consortium) Global Standard for Food Safety and obtained HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) certification for food safety.
It is directly run, supervised, and tested by experienced European experts.
At Saturday’s inauguration ceremony, Masan MEATLife also announced its strategy to expand operations into the poultry meat market through the investment of VND613 billion ($26.4 million) to own 51 percent of 3F VIET Company — one of the first companies of Vietnam to apply the 3F (Feed – Farm – Food) formula to realizing the idea of ‘from farm to fork.’
Masan MEATLife introduced the officially certified MEATDeli chilled meat brand in 2018 following the commissioning of its first chilled meat processing plant in the northern province of Ha Nam.
The plant in Long An is the second of its kind.
Pham Trung Lam, Masan MEATLife’s general director, said that the opening of the meat processing plant in Long An and its penetration into the poultry meat market “are strategic steps toward a vision of transforming Masan MEATLife into a true consumer goods company.”
