Taipei, Feb. 9, 2010 (CENS)--To raise deployment in Vietnam, Uni-President Group, Taiwan`s leading food maker, has budgeted US$140 million to set up an aquacultural feed plant, which has recently broken ground in the north-central region of Vietnam.

Once volume producing in March 2011, the plant will enable the group to become Vietnam`s largest aquacultural feed maker with market share increasing 25 percentage points to reach 60%.

Uni-President said aquaculture is Vietnam`s third-largest foreign exchange earner. Vietnam is currently the world`s largest exporter of shrimps, with the profit margin of aquacultural feed being higher however.

By taking aquaculture feedstuff as locomotive for its deployment in Vietnam, Uni-President will step by step expand presence to other business lines such as livestock and instant noodles.

At present, Uni-President has already had two aquaculture feedstuff plants in Vietnam, each churning out 250,000 aquaculture feedstuff per year, with a 35% market share in that nation. But the group has seen a tight supply because of limited production capacity. With the establishment of three production lines for aquaculture stuff in the new plant, the group will be able to ramp up 100,000 metric tons of aquaculture feedstuff per year. After the three new production lines begin mass production, the group will consider increasing another two lines to further ratchet up its market share.

The group said its two old plants are 1,000 kilometers from the proposed new plant, located in the nation`s shrimp production center, so setting up the new one will help to cut cost of production.

As the production of aquaculture feedstuff relies on the flour additives, Uni-President will increase the production lines for flours and instant noodles with an aim to increase production synergy in Vietnam.

In Southeast Asia, Uni-President has invested in four nations, including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. The group said it broadly made profits from the investments in the above-mentioned four nations. An institutional investor estimated Uni-President would very likely eclipse NT$10 billion (about US$312.5 million) in pretax earnings in 2009.

(by Ben Shen)