BÌNH DƯƠNG — Tetra Pak has announced an additional investment of five million euros in its 120 million euro packaging material factory in Bình Dương Province on September 16.

The additional investment reaffirms its confidence in Việt Nam’s economic rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic and its continuing commitment to support food and beverage producers in Việt Nam.

“This additional investment of five million euros reflects our confidence in the strong recovery of Việt Nam’s post-pandemic economy,” said Eliseo Barcas, Managing Director for Tetra Pak Vietnam. “This investment also enables us to better serve our customers by offering greater capacity, more exciting packaging innovation and reducing our environmental footprint.”

The new investment is expected to increase the factory’s annual output from the current 11.5 billion to 16.5 billion packages, thereby meeting the growing needs for aseptic packages in Việt Nam and regional markets. In addition, it empowers the factory to produce premium carton packages to replace imports.

The upgrade will also include the installation of 2,300 solar panels on the factory’s roof. This effort is part of Tetra Pak’s ambition to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions in the company’s operations by 2030.

“As the business environment is being surrounded by many challenges brought on by COVID-19, the expansion of Tetra Pak factory in Bình Dương Province is indeed a refreshing highlight, reflecting the company’s leadership in the food packaging industry,” said Trần Quang Trung, President of the Vietnam Dairy Association.

“The expansion would surely give dairy producers peace of mind on the continuous supply and quality of the carton packaging, which has become very important in the context of the current disruptions in the global value chain. Sourcing packaging material from a local production as in Tetra Pak Bình Dương factory is, no doubt, a big advantage for not just dairy but other food and beverage manufacturers.”

With the investment, Tetra Pak continues to reinforce its strategic focus to protect food, people, and the planet, which is even more important during the pandemic.

“The pandemic has stressed the importance of safe and nutritious food in protecting people’s health. Working with local food manufacturers, we have delivered about seven billion units of liquid food packaged in cartons to Vietnamese people over the past nine months, an equivalent growth of almost 14 per cent on a year-over-year basis,” Barcas said.

Put into operation in mid-2019, Bình Dương factory was Tetra Pak’s eighth facilities in the Asia Pacific region that is set to produce aseptic cartons for domestic and export markets in ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand.

In 2020, Tetra Pak Bình Dương was certified with the most-demanding LEED Version 4 Gold, which helps the factory save 17.6 million litres of water, recycling or salvaging 65 per cent of generated waste, and decreasing 4,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year. — VNS