Mitsui & Co is getting into the dairy business in Indonesia through local food producer ABC Group. An initial US$50 million or so will be invested in farm and processing capacity to integrate operations, from producing raw milk to selling the final products. The Japanese trading house has taken a 30% stake worth 1 billion yen ($8.88 million) in Raffles Pacific Harvest in the highlands of Garut, West Java. The 72-hectare farm will initially rear 900 cows with plans to raise up to 10,000 in the long run. Raw milk will be sent from the Raffles’ farm to a processing plant 30km away in Bandung operated by ABC Kogen Dairy, in which Mitsui has also taken a 30% stake for 1 billion yen. (Nikkei)
