Building begins on rice processing plant

The An Giang Agricultural Product Protection JSC yesterday broke ground for a rice processing plant with an annual capacity of 100,000 tonnes in the Mekong delta province of An Giang.

The 8.2-ha Thoai Son processing plant in the district of the same name will also have a drying facility with a capacity of 500 tonnes of rice a day.

The company said the VND212 billion (US$10 million) processing plant would go on stream in early 2012.

The company is also set to start construction of a 200,000-tonne processing plant at a cost of over $10 million in Dong Thap Province ( the Mekong delta) today.

Tan Hong Rice Processing Plant in the district of the same name will be the largest of its kind in the delta when it becomes operational by the end of February next year.

To source paddy for the two processing facilities, the company has unveiled plans to sign contracts with local farmers to grow rice on more than 5,000 hectares, mainly of the jasmine 85 variety.

The contracts are likely to be signed by year-end before the planting of the 2011-12 winter-spring crop.

The company said it would break ground for another 200,000-tonne plant in Long An Province, also in the Mekong delta, in the third quarter of this year. — VNS

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