The state-run Russia Direct Investment Fund (RFID) has partnered with Thailand’s largest agribusiness, Charoen Pokphand Group (CP), and China’s Banner Infant Dairy Products in a joint venture to build a $1 billion dairy complex in the Ryazan region of Russia, reports Reuters.

The enterprise, which will be run by CP Group, will include dairy farms with a staggering 80,000 milking cows, 40,000 to 60,000 hectares of grain, and a feed factory, according to the Russian Direct Investment Fund reports RT. Once completed in the next three to five years, the complex is expected to produce between 300,000 and 350,000 tons of raw milk and 400,000 tons of dairy products per year.

Such scale will make CP Group one of the top five dairy producers in Russia, Andrey Danilenko, Chairman of Russia’s National Dairy Producers Union told Reuters. The top two producers in the country are Danone and Pepsi Inc.

Under a separate agreement, Vietnam’s TH Group began construction of dairy farms outside Moscow as part of its ten-year, $2.7 billion project.

The first $500 million phase of the project, is expected to produce 800 tons of dairy products per day that will reach the Russian market by next year, TH Group Chairman Thai Huong told Reuters.

CP Group announced last year that it earmarked $600 million to invest in meat and dairy production in Russia and was exploring potential regions for development.

“CP Group will invest $600 million in Russia’s agricultural sector and will make another $400 million investment next year,” RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev said, reports OANA News. “We will develop milk and meat production focusing on export mainly to Asian markets.”

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by Lynda Kiernan