At a press conference after talks with President To Lam on June 20, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: “The bilateral partnership in the agricultural sector is developing. Mutual supplies of agricultural products are increasing and the range of products is becoming more diverse. Vietnam's TH Group is building milk processing plants in several regions of Russia, including the Kaluga and Primorye regions. Last year, the construction of the first part of a livestock complex in the Moscow suburbs with a scale of 6,000 dairy cows was completed.”
Before the visit, on June 19, 2024, President Putin wrote an article “Russia and Vietnam: Friendship tested by time” published in Nhan Dan newspaper. In the article, in the section on economic relations, the Russian President mentioned the TH Group project as follows: “We hope that Vietnamese investors will also be more active in taking advantage of the great opportunities in the Russian market. For example, Vietnam's TH Group has successfully taken advantage of this opportunity and is currently building milk processing plants in the Moscow and Kaluga regions as well as in the Primorye region”.
The investment in Primorye that President Putin mentioned above is the event that took place on May 21, in Nikolo-Mikhailovka village, Yakovlevsky district, Primorye region, Russian Federation. Here, TH Group started the project of raising dairy cows and processing TH milk with a total investment of 19 billion rubles (more than 5,200 billion VND).
Primorye is located in the Far East region of Russia. Russian President Vladimir Putin affirmed that it is an absolute priority region of Russia in the 21st century. TH Group, led by Hero of Labor Thai Huong, soon realized the opportunity in this region, considering the Far East region a priority in the TH Project in the Russian Federation.
 |
Since early 2017, after the official visit to Vietnam and working with TH Group to introduce the potential of the Far East region by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev, TH has sent a delegation of experts to survey potential lands in Primorye Krai. And TH has officially become a member of the Mikhailovsky Superior Economic Development Zone (belonging to the Far East Superior Economic Zones) since September 2017.
Then, at the Eastern Economic Forum (an event to establish and strengthen the relationship between the Russian and global investment communities in the Russian Far East) held on September 6, 2017, chaired by President Vladimir Putin, Hero of Labor Thai Huong commented: “The Russian Federation has a large land area, but except for the lands in the South such as Sochi or Krasnodar... which have a longer production period, most of the year only has 6 months of cultivation, the remaining 6 months are dormant. But I consider that a priceless gift that nature has bestowed upon the great Russia. Because during the 6 months of dormancy, microorganisms are active, creating a priceless clean nutritional ecosystem for the soil and it is also the time for the soil to rest. Just by bringing in science, technology and management science, these lands will blossom, bringing unlimited values that the world is dreaming of and aiming for - that is clean organic agriculture serving human life.
 |
During the groundbreaking ceremony of the project on May 21 in the village of Nikolo-Mikhailovka, Yakovlevsky district, Primorye region mentioned above, we, the writers of this article, were also present. While Vietnam is at its peak of heat, here, we still have to wear light jackets, enough to see, winter will be cold, snow will cover and the land will rest as businesswoman Thai Huong said.
After the groundbreaking ceremony, we visited the families in the village of Nikolo-Mikhailovka. The first two families were locked and deserted, it seemed that they had not been there for a long time. We walked a little further and reached the family of a farmer named Alex.
Mr. and Mrs. Alex are nearly 80 years old, have 3 children but all three do not live in the village but in Vladivostok (the capital of Primorye) and Ukraine. They are retired and have a pension of 17,000 rubles/month (about 5.1 million VND/month). The couple has 3 hectares of land but do not cultivate all of it, only a few thousand square meters near the house, growing vegetables and eating river fish.
 |
Also located in the Primorye region, the village of Nikolo-Mikhailovka, Yakovlevsky district, is nearly 500km from the capital of the region, Vladivostok. This is a plain area, the land is quite flat surrounded by low mountains. In favorable areas, many plots of land have been reclaimed by TH Group with very large areas, stretching straight to the horizon. Looking at this scene reminds us of the rolling fields of TH in Nghia Dan, Nghe An.
The area of TH’s farm in the village to be built is flat, with many large grassy areas, black, fertile soil. Going deeper, this area has many rivers and lakes, favorable for raising dairy cows. The construction area of TH’s farm is about 3km from a large lake, similar to Sao River Lake next to TH’s cow farm No. 1 in Nghia Dan, Nghe An.
When saying goodbye, Mr. Alex said that near his house there used to be a few farmers raising dairy cows but they were not successful and abandoned the entire breeding area. He hopes that TH will be successful, creating jobs for young people in the area so that they do not have to go far to work. The District Chief of Yakovlevsky District (where the project is located) also mentioned this when thanking TH Group for investing here to create jobs for people at the groundbreaking ceremony.
 |
Primorye is the third location that TH Group has deployed in Russia after Kaluga and Moscow provinces. At the first two locations, leaders of both countries attended the groundbreaking ceremony or came to visit, encourage, and express high expectations. In particular, in September 2018, within the framework of his visit to Russia, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong attended the groundbreaking ceremony of TH's milk processing plant in Kaluga Region. The General Secretary assessed that the project has an important political significance, enriching Vietnam - Russia cooperation. "TH's project could be the beginning of an investment trend between Vietnam and the Russian Federation. For a long time, we have been used to Russian enterprises investing in Vietnam, now there is a new point, Vietnamese enterprises investing in Russia" - the General Secretary assessed.
Talking about the significance of the project, Labor Hero Thai Huong said that TH's first goal in Russia is to show gratitude to the Russian people, making an important contribution to helping Russians take the initiative in their domestic milk sources, not depending on European milk sources. With the third farm in Russia just started, businesswoman Thai Huong also aims for another goal. On the map, Primorye is in the Far East region of Russia, closest to Vietnam as the crow flies, convenient for trade with large markets such as China.
The Russians have a song called “Russian Fields” with a gentle, immense rhythm. It is a song that symbolizes the Russian soul, the immense patriotism of the Russian people. Our Russian students often sing this song in exchange sessions because of the same harmony, because of their love for the great and kind Russia. Going back to the previous period, surely those who lived during the resistance war against France and the US still remember at some point having eaten dishes made from tens of thousands of tons of wheat flour grown on Russian fields. And now, with the project of TH Group, we have the opportunity to express our love, gratitude, and tie the knot with Russian fields in reality.
 |
 |
As mentioned above, to decide to let TH invest in Russia, many high-ranking officials of the Russian Federation have directly visited Vietnam many times to work with TH Group. During the business trips of our Russian friends, we would like to recount the visit on November 24, 2023 of Mr. Efremov Alexander Viktorovich, Minister of Agriculture of Kaluga Province, Federation (Russia is organized according to the federal model, each state/province or region has its own government).
The visit of Mr. Efremov Alexander Viktorovich was not a normal tour but could be considered a survey, if not a test of the capacity of TH Group by the manager of the field that TH is investing in Russia, including Kaluga.
 |
Wearing jeans, a T-shirt, and sneakers, the Minister of Agriculture of Kaluga walked continuously on the fields of the TH Group in Nghe An. He fondled handfuls of soil and bundles of grass; used his phone to film and take detailed photos of the stages of livestock farming and milk processing. Such a thorough survey by a Russian agricultural official is deepening the relationship between Russian fields and Vietnamese fields…
At the end of the survey, Mr. Efremov Alexander Viktorovich compared Kaluga and Nghe An provinces to be similar in terms of agricultural land area. Dairy farming is also a priority industry of the province. Regarding dairy cows, Kaluga currently has 52,000. However, with ongoing projects, such as TH's project, in just a few years, the number of cows will reach 72,000. The average milk yield of the herd is about 27 liters/cow/day. The Minister expressed his admiration when he learned that TH's average milk yield in Nghe An is 33 liters/cow/day, while the average milk yield of TH's farm in the Russian Federation is 40 liters/cow/day.
During the working program, the Minister of Agriculture of Kaluga Region and the delegation listened to the introduction of the vision, strategy and outstanding achievements of TH Group. Mr. Efremov Alexander Viktorovich could not help but be surprised by the rapid developments in the 14-year history of formation and development of TH Group, especially the international success of the concentrated dairy farming model applying high technology, closed production from a hot land like Nghia Dan.
Not only effectively exploiting economic potentials, TH's closed production chain has helped change traditional production methods, attracted the participation of local people and completely changed the face of the socio-economy, creating a clean fresh milk revolution in Vietnam. The Minister of Agriculture of Kaluga Region expressed his hope that the success that TH Group has achieved in Vietnam will quickly be reproduced in Kaluga. "I really hope that TH's team will bring development momentum to the project implementation area. Kaluga Province still has a lot of potential for agricultural development, with 400,000 hectares of land not yet put into production, so TH can not only stop at this project but continue with many more projects."
“It is a pleasure to visit Nghe An province, the homeland of the great leader of Vietnam - President Ho Chi Minh. It is a pleasure to visit the projects of TH Group under the leadership of Ms. Thai Huong. Today, seeing with our own eyes how TH organizes production in Nghe An, we have more confidence in TH Group. A successful project needs three factors. The first is the strong will of the leader. The second is the professionalism of the project implementation team and the third is the lucky factor - favorable time and place. I see that you have everything. I expect TH to be successful in Kaluga province and we will create all conditions to support you to achieve that,” said Minister Efremov Alexander Viktorovich.
 |
Video introducing TH Group's project in the Russian Federation |
 |
Comment (0)