Vietnam Business Forum’s reporter conducts an interview with Mr. Jan Bles – General Director of Friesland Foods Campina Vietnam about the company’s activities.
The 18,000th Den Dom Dom scholarship was granted to good pupils in May 2009 by Friesland foods Campina Vietnam, could you please share with us the significance of this program?
Together with nutrition and dairy development, education is one of the 3 pillars to fulfill Friesland foods Campina Vietnam’s mission of contributing to the improvement of life for Vietnamese. We believe education is crucial for children and Den Dom Dom was established to provide a schooling opportunity to them. Den Dom Dom, the program that grants scholarship to poor pupils, is our long-term commitment. Primary education is important and the fact is that there are a lot of pupils in Vietnam who are unable to go to school. Since 2002, we have granted more than 18,000 scholarships to poor pupils nationwide and built 5 schools in remote provinces (Hue, Quang Ngai, Ha Nam, Binh Phuoc and Ca Mau). Over the past 8 years of Den Dom Dom, we have witnessed thousands of pupils encouraged to keep moving forward. Increasing in number and value of scholarship, expanding from scholarship to school building; and growing from corporate activity to social activity, we are happy with what Den Dom Dom has contributed and we wish to receive more support from the community so that Den Dom Dom will go further, helping more pupils shine.
What are your expectations from the talent training program for staffs studying in the Netherlands and how long is the program expected to last?
Talent development is one of our key focuses. We have various activities such as: The Talent factory program, the Friesland foods Campina Vietnam Companion Scholarship and recently, Friesland foods Campina Vietnam – Orange Tulip scholarship. These programs are both to provide support to students to pursue higher education and to develop talented resource for Friesland foods Campina Vietnam, specifically and for Friesland foods Campina Vietnam in general. We not only finance the students for their university programs but also create internships and career opportunities for them in Vietnam.
Friesland foods Campina Vietnam Companion Scholarship has been run for years and since it’s our talent development strategy, certainly, we will keep it running annually. For the Friesland foods Campina Vietnam – Orange Tulip scholarship, the program that sponsors school fees for Vietnamese students studying in the Netherlands, this is the first time we started the sponsorship. We do hope to have positive outcomes so that the program can be developed and maintained.
The price of milk is now the hottest issue in Vietnam. It may be necessary for the Vietnamese Government to stabilize the price. We know that Friesland Foods Campina Vietnam is one of a few companies who committed not to increase the sale price. What is your comment on this?
We are a global company with a strong local focus, working closely with people and communities where we operate. We want to be a responsible company. With a lot of programs now running as a part of Vietnamese people’s life, showing our long-term commitment in Vietnam, we will continue our commitment to producing the highest quality and best-suited products that help to develop better physical growth, bone strength, mineral absorption, brain development and stronger immunity. Additionally, we support the Vietnamese to set up and develop effective dairy farming by supporting distributors and retailers to sell our products, providing customer services, creating job and trainings for employees, and organizing social programs. Together we assist people to move forward in life.
As a responsible company, we always wish to share the weight of price with consumers. Therefore, we try our best to keep the price as stable as we can while maintaining good quality of our product. We also provide a variety of products and SKU for consumers to assure that there’s always an offer that fits with their need and affordability. We have developed new SKUs like Fristi in 110ml bottle or Friso 1.5kg tin, Friesland foods Campina 1.5kg tin, with a bigger size to offer consumer product at relatively cheaper price by saving the packaging cost. There are too many elements that effect milk price and we reduce unnecessary costs to avoid price increase.
One of Friesland Foods Campina Vietnam’s goals is “for community health.” To make this come true, what kind of support activities are given to consumers?
Nutrition is one of the 3 commitments of Friesland foods Campina Vietnam to improve Vietnamese life. According to a statistic of National Institute of Nutrition, 33.9% of children under 5 years-old are malnourished and undersized. Statistics of primary schools showed that malnourished children account for 20%, children with a shortage of zinc matter account for 30%, and the ratio of iron and blood deficiency for children under 5 years old is 34% and 20% in primary school. The daily menu of Vietnamese children only meets 30%-50% of the recommended daily demand. This fact directly affects health and race of a whole generation of Vietnam.
We established the Nutrition Center in 2003 to be our nutritional education arm to provide continuous demonstration of nutritional science-based knowledge to the community via activities such as: public nutritional education programs, parent’s nutritional counseling and nutritional update for professional audiences.
One example was the Nutrition Consultancy Week held last year. It has been a national activity, contributing in building physical health of Vietnamese people. We are proud to be a partner of the National Institute of Nutrition in helping raising awareness about nutrition for the public, providing nutrition information and supporting poor families in provinces. Sponsoring to Nutrition Consultancy Week for Community Health, Friesland foods Campina Vietnam wishes to contribute to protect and build physical health for Vietnamese people, especially the young generation.
Vietnamese
10/12/2024
Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City
