VietNamNet Bridge – Just one year after the British ED&F stopped collecting cocoa in Vietnam and Japanese Mitsubishi “disappeared,” Puratos Grand-place has penetrated the Vietnamese market to become a big rival for Cargill.

Cargill’s monopoly no longer exists

While the two groups left Vietnam, other big guys in farm produce processing such as Touton, Olam, Armajaro and Ecom have been expanding their business in Vietnam.

Of these, Armajo has been well known as having great advantages in seeking supply sources and distributing cocoa and coffee to chocolate manufacturers worldwide. Meanwhile, Ecom is one of the world’s five biggest coffee, cotton and cocoa collectors, and a big supplier of materials to Nestle, Hershey, Mars and Starbucks.

However, Puratos Grand-Place Vietnam proves to be the biggest name. It has, in cooperation with Mars, inaugurated the cocoa collection and fermentation plant (CCFP) with the investment capital of $4.2 million in the first phase and the cocoa development center (CDC).

Mars has also been listed among the “big guys” as a manufacturer of sweets, pet feed and chocolate-based products in Giao Long Industrial Zone in Ben Tre province.

Puratos Grand-Place Vietnam has become the second company in Vietnam, after Cargill, that cooperates with Mars to collect materials and control the quality in accordance with the “Cocotrace” standard, and trains Vietnamese farmers.

CCFP is believed to be the biggest cocoa fermentation plant in Asia. According to Puratos Grand-Place Vietnam’s CEO Gricha Safarian, the from-cocoa nut-to-chocolate bar production model would cause major changes to the Vietnam’s cocoa industry.

Meanwhile, Cargill’s plan to expand production in Vietnam remains half done. In 2011, Harold Poelma, a senior executive of Cargill stated that Cargill would set up a plant to process cocoa liquor, cocoa butter and cocoa powder in Vietnam for export to China and India. If so, Cargill would no more have to carry fermented cocoa to its plants in Europe for grinding.

Vietnam still very attractive

The list of the 10 biggest cocoa producers and processors includes the Netherlands, Ivory Coast, the US, Germany, Malaysia, Brazil, Ghana, France, Indonesia and Spain. The name “Vietnam” has not been mentioned when experts talk about the biggest cocoa suppliers in the world.

However, Vietnam still can attract big investors in the field. According to Cargill, 70 percent of total cocoa is from Western Africa, especially Ivory Coast.

However, the political uncertainties in the country since 1999 have worried Cargill’s leaders. This has prompted Cargill look for other markets as the alternative material supply sources. And it has found Vietnam, where it began cooperating with Mars in 2004 to do business.

There is another reason that encourages Cargill to invest in Vietnam: the government of Vietnam has decided to expand the cocoa plantation and cooperate with some international organizations to export cocoa.

According to Lam Dinh Hai, Director of the Vietnam’s Cocoa Development Program, Mars accounts for 20 percent of the total global cocoa output, or about 680,000 tons per annum, which explains why a lot of suppliers want to cooperate with Mars.

As such, if Mars wants suppliers, a lot of enterprises would jump to Vietnam to scramble for the pieces of the Vietnamese cocoa cake, even though Vietnam’s cocoa output remains very modest, less than 30 tons a year.

“If Mars agrees, Olam and Ecom would begin collecting cocoa,” Hai said.

DNSG