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H
oang Thi Lam Suong recalls the
time two years ago when she
first met Arbel Chostazki, an Is-
raeli nutrition expert at locally-
owned TH Milk Food Company, based
in central Nghe An province. Within a
year of that day the two were not only
collgeagues, but husband and wife.
Chostazki has learned a lot from
local culture and living habits. He likes
playing guitar and learning the Viet-
namese language, and teaching local
kids English. The couple says TH Milk is
their second home.
“We currently have no intention of
going back to Israel to live. We may do
that over the next one or two decades,
but for now we want to contribute more
to TH Milk and Vietnam’s hi-tech agricul-
tural development,” Chostazki says.
TH Milk employs nearly 20 Israeli,
American, French and New Zealand ex-
perts. Many, like Chostazki, have mar-
ried local girls. The foreigners have be-
come quite familiar to locals here.
Their family’s houses are all located
on TH’s land covered by meadows, sun-
flowers and kaoliang used for making
cow feed. They also have kids who
can speak the languages of both their
parents.
IMPETUS FOR CHANGE
Two years ago a search for TH Milk
on Google would have thrown up a few
hundred hits; today about 85 million
results appear.
“This figure shows that TH Milk has
successfully built a famous brand name.
Its high-quality products have carved
a firm niche in the mind of custom-
ers. This is understandable, because TH
TrueMilk is a fine combination of natu-
ral resources and high technology and
human’s efforts and zeal,” Suong says.
In October 2009, TH Milk began
construction of its $1.2 billion high-
tech project to raise dairy cows and
industrially process milk. It is the largest
project of its type in the world.
The company has invested $350
million into its milk producing system
for the first stage and the figure will
reach $1.2 billion by 2020.
The company currently has near-
ly 30,000 dairy cows imported from
New Zealand, Canada and Australia, of
which 14,000 are for milking. By 2017,
TH Milk will have 137,000 dairy cows,
accounting for 50 per cent of Vietnam’s
total. The company’s land area for mak-
ing milk, including meadows, feed pro-
duction, and clean water and waste wa-
ter treatment, will rise from the current
2,000 hectares to 37,000ha by 2017.
At present, TH Milk has two milk
factories with total daily capacity of
800,000 litres.
Nguyen Le Thang and his wife live
and work on-site. They say the com-
pany’s big impacts on local life include
providing a good working environment.
“It is a dream to work here. I spend
most of my time on the field and can
stand hours in the scorching sun with-
out feeling tired,” says Thang, manager
of TH Milk’s cultivation section.
Tran Dinh Tue, an agricultural engi-
neer from southern Tra Vinh province,
has been working for TH Milk for two
years in the milking section. He says
TH Milk’s collaboration between overseas partners and local staff has seen
production soar alongside brand recognition.
Tung Nguyen
paid a visit to the
company’s key production sites and caught up with some of the workers who
describe themselves as one big family.
timeout
All staff must feel hap-
py when working at TH
Milk and all locals must
feel happy at the opera-
tion of the project here.
I like working here as
all my aspirations can
be made possible
- Gil Inbar,
TH Milk general director
LIVING
EXPAT LIFE . BOILING POINT
SOCIETY AT LARGE . EDUCATION
LIFE ON THE