Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong has praised Sengdeuane Farm for making significant strides in its development and becoming a main food supplier for markets in Vientiane and other provinces, while advising the operator to continue expanding the business.

Mr Thongsing made the comments when visiting the farm yesterday to learn from the business owners about the opportunities and challenges they were facing amidst international economic integration and business competition.

Sengdeuane Farm is located in Thoulakhom district’s Nanokkhoum village in Vientiane province. It is 100 percent Lao owned and operated and all technical experts and workers are Lao nationals.

The farm belongs to the Thedsombandith family with Ms Sengdeuane Thedsombandith as its managing director, who started the business in 2007 with a main focus on pig breeding. The farm currently has tens of thousands of pigs, of which some 1,500 of them are breeding sows.

Ms Sengdeuane said the increasing demand in pork consumption and the government’s policy to promote commercial agriculture has been driving the enthusiasm of the family to further expand the business.

According to her, 30 percent of the pork in Vientiane’s capital city markets comes from her farm, which is able to supply around 40 tonnes of the product per week

Sengdeuane Farm also operates poultry and fish farming enterprises with the capacity to supply markets with 1 tonne of chickens and 5 tonnes of fish per week.

The farm also has its own animal food processing factory in place which has the capacity to produce 30-40 tonnes of product per day.

“The Party and government want more such businesses as we know the supply of produce still doesn’t meet the demand. We want all members of the public to have standard, safe meat to consume at reasonable prices,” Prime Minister Thongsing said.

Aside from supplying pork to markets, Sengdeuane Farm also produces piglets for sale to other pig farms.

Mr Thongsing commented that once domestic food products can be guaranteed in terms of quantity and quality, they will serve the government policy on reducing imports while relieving public concerns about the risk of residues in imported meat and animal food.

He emphasised the need for the farm to maintain product quality despite the fact it will cause some impacts to profitability.

“If products can be guaranteed in terms of both quantity and quality, the faith and trust of members of public in the farm will be maintained and its role will be outstanding,” Prime Minister Thongsing noted.

Despite the farm being able to supply pork to other provinces by refrigerated container transport, Prime Minister Thongsing suggested the business operator should expand its farms to northern and southern provinces.

The PM said this would guarantee that there is always a reliable meat and egg supply. He cited Saravan province, where local residents still rely on markets in Pakxe, Champassak province.

A ccording to Ms Sengdeuane, she has future plans to expand to other provinces but is not ready to do so just yet.

She said the farm plans to increase the number of sows from 1,500 to 3,000 in the next few years, supplying from 40 to 60 tonnes of pork per week in new, standard packaging.

It also aims to double the number of chickens and eggs it produces while there are future plans to install new modern food processing equipment and a standard corn baking factory.

Source: Vientiane Times
June 19, 2014