One of Vietnam’s leading dairy producers and a Japanese food group on Thursday announced the establishment of their joint venture, aiming to bring nutritional products for children made in Japanese standards into the Vietnamese market.

Asahi Group Holdings, the owner of baby food brand Wakodo, has finally got its foot in the door of Vietnam’s dairy and beverage market, with Asahi-NutiFood, the joint venture it formed with local dairy producer NutiFood.

The two firms will play to their own strengths as they share equal capital.

NutiFood has a long-term business experience, extensive distribution channels in Vietnam and deep insights of Vietnamese children’s nutrition while Asahi holds expertise in production of high-quality powdered milk and baby food, according to Shoyama Katsuo, chairman of Asahi Group Foods.

“Establishing a joint venture will be more advantageous than branching out in a new market, because a local partner always have more understandings and operational experience in that specific market,” Katsuo said at Thursday’s ceremony.

Asahi’s chairman also emphasized the importance role of the Vietnamese market to the Japanese conglomerate’s businesses, especially in the sector of nutritional food for children.

“Each year, Vietnam has about 1.6 million more children, nearly double that figure of Japan, showing the large potential of market of nutritional products for children in Vietnam,” Katsuo affirmed.

In the initial phase, the nutritional products will be made by the Japan-based factories of Asahi, under the advice of NutiFood experts to suit Vietnamese children, and directly imported to the Southeast Asian country, according to Tran Thanh Hai, NutiFood’s chairman.

“We hope that the market will welcome products from this joint venture,” Hai said.

Asahi Group Holdings, founded in 1949 and headquartered in Tokyo, engages in the manufacture and sale of food and beverage. The food segment provides around 3,000 products of confectioneries, pharmaceuticals, supplements, baby products, freeze-dried foods, seasonings and retort-pouch foods.

Nutifood Nutrition Food, founded in 2000 and based in Ho Chi Minh City, manufactures nutritional dairy food products.

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