Thai Hoa Group: Valuing up Vietnamese Coffee

Building a good and stable coffee material area is the sustainable development strategy of Vietnamese coffee companies, including Thai Hoa Group. Thai Hoa Group is the unique company in Vietnam because it produces coffee from cultivation to exporting coffee beans and finished coffee products. Vietnam Business Forum interviews Mr Nguyen Van An, President and General Director of Thai Hoa Group, to provide more information about its upcoming business steps.

The economy is beginning to rebound; can you talk about your forecast about the market demand for coffee in the coming time?

The global economic crisis has adversely affected all companies and importers and exporters have been hit the hardest. Prices of agricultural products, especially coffee, are not determined by supply-demand. Coffee prices are determined on commodity exchanges. The “liquidity” of coffee is volatile but this commodity is a main source of forex for Vietnam. Thus, in my opinion, the price is not fixed by the supply and demand but by speculative activities. When the economy shrinks, investors shift to storing gold but they change to commodities if the economy revives.

Thai Hoa is the largest coffee exporter in Vietnam and its prestige and quality have been attested in the world market. How has Thai Hoa prepared to embrace opportunities of the economic recovery?

Presently, Thai Hoa has built and developed central material areas throughout Vietnam like Dien Bien, Hoa Binh, Quang Tri and Lam Dong provinces and in Laos. We have determined to invest in agriculture by professionalising and mechanising our production activities. The investment for material areas is the first but very important stepping stone to build a complete production process. We have admitted farmers to our companies and they become our stakeholders. They will work on their own lands and their returns are based on areas.

Most of Thai Hoa’s products are destined for export. The company’s products have made presence in major markets in the world such as Japan, the United States, the European Union, Switzerland, etc. After conquering global markets, Thai Hoa started building distribution networks in Vietnam. We focus on middle-class and high-end market segments. The tendency of enjoying original coffees has taken shape but no other companies have joined in.

Additionally, we are also determined to promote investment and cooperation programmes with leading companies in the region and in the world. Singapore’s Salim Group and State companies are studying investment opportunities and intending to invest in Thai Hoa. Singapore is the gateway for world-leading companies to step into Asian markets and extend their business realms. Therefore, when we make success in this market, we will list our shares on the Singapore Stock Exchange to raise funds for our projects.

Could you talk about your business plans?

Thai Hoa has introduced the roadmap to become a world-leading coffee group by 2015, empowered by the business philosophy of “Think differently. Step into the world.” To realise this target, we have renovated our governance and improved the human resource quality. In our business view, customers are the key to success.

Thai Hoa will not only supply products and services to the world but also gain initiative on global trade. We hope to upgrade the Vietnamese coffee from “agricultural position” to “commercial position.”

Additionally, Thai Hoa continues to consolidate its position and realise the target of becoming the top coffee exporter in the coming year. To heighten added values in business activities, Thai Hoa will step up the construction of the world’s most modern instant coffee plant and operate it in 2011. We will establish international standard coffeehouse chains in Vietnam and in foreign nations.

Posted by VBN on Nov 10 2009. Filed under Enterprises. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry