Goats milk specialist Delamere Dairy to begin exporting to Vietnam

Cheshire-based Delamere Dairy is to begin exporting to Vietnam.

The goats milk specialist has had a presence in east Asia since 2011, when it opened an office in Hong Kong “to explore market opportunities in the region”. 

It plans to supply Vietnam from Singapore, with the milk “primarily be[ing] sold via e-commerce sites 23h+ and Shopee”.

It said it aims to promote its UHT goats milk to foodservice providers and the wider consumer market in the country.

Demand for goats milk in the nation of 97 million people had tripled over the past decade, meaning the imminent launch should “capitalise on this interest in a more convenient long-life format”, the business said.

“Goats milk is recognised in the country, but production has been on a small scale,” added Delamere Dairy export director Jonathan Cope.

“In the Asean [the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a 10-country bloc of which Vietnam is a member] region as a whole, while diets have historically been different to Europe, they are changing,” said Cope.

When Delamere began expanding in east Asia, Vietnam’s gross domestic product per capita was a shade under $2,000, according to World Bank estimates, slightly over half the level reported for last year.

However its economy has almost doubled in size over the same time period.

Much of this was thanks to surging foreign investment in IT and computing, with Intel and Samsung operating major manufacturing plants in the country, which has been tightly controlled by the Communist Party of Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam war. 

Rising China-US tensions have also prompted transnational corporations to look for nearby alternatives to China over recent years.

Dairy consultancy Kite last year said UK suppliers should look to Asian markets as potential exporting destinations, citing rising incomes per capita across many of the region’s high-population nations.

The UK and Vietnam agreed in late 2020 to apply the terms of the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement (FTA), which includes tariff-free dairy trade, as part of the UK’s post-Brexit transition from EU membership.

However, there is tough competition in the region from exporting behemoths in Australia, New Zealand and the US, which have long-established Asia-focused dairy supply chains and markets.

Elsewhere, the UK and Vietnam could soon become dairy rivals, as Vietnam’s own growing dairy industry has increased exports in recent years to some of the same Persian Gulf and Middle Eastern nations the UK recently opened FTA negotiations with.