The Co-operative Bulk Handling (CBH) Group, a member of ICA, joined Interflour Group in celebrating the opening of the US$70 million Intermalt facility in Vietnam providing Western Australian grain growers with direct access to the Asian beer market.
CBH Chairman Wally Newman and Chief Executive Officer Andy Crane attended the ceremony together with directors and senior leaders including Interflour Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Greg Harvey, Intermalt General Manager James Kirton and representatives from the Vietnamese government.
Opening ceremony of the Intermalt Facility
Mr Newman said CBH’s involvement in downstream grain processing, through its 50 per cent shareholding of Interflour, had diversified the co-operative’s income stream and resulted in increased market opportunities for Australian grain. It will be a new chapter for Western Australian barley growers who now have direct access to Vietnam’s burgeoning beer market – the fastest growing beer market in Asia. Intermalt is located in Cai Mep, Vietnam, and will be the largest malting plant in South East Asia. It will have the capacity to produce 110,000 tonnes of malt a year and will service major brewers in the region including Heineken Vietnam.
