F. Industrial facilities and capacity

This appendix lists the industrial plants in Vietnam that an alternative-protein venture could use, partner with or learn from. It covers the fermentation base (amino acids and MSG, yeast, fuel ethanol, breweries, sauces and biologics), the feed and aquafeed industry, soybean crushing, soy, dairy, meat and đồ chay (traditional vegetarian food) processors, starch and glucose, and the engineering firms that build these plants. It also records what we looked for and did not find: contract fermentation, protein isolate plants and food-grade extrusion. It supports Industrial base. Company profiles are in E. Directory; pilot plants, laboratories and talent are in L. Labs and talent; raw materials are in Feedstock data sheets.

#How to read this appendix

• Capacity. "Nameplate" or "design" capacity is what a plant was built to make, not what it makes. "Claimed" means a company or press statement we could not check against a filing. Where the only figure is historic, we give its year. Units are as published (t/yr, m3/yr, litres, doses).
• Fermentation types. "Aerobic, aseptic" fermentation uses stirred or aerated tanks that can be sterilised. It is the kind used for amino acids, yeast and precision fermentation, and the kind most alternative-protein processes need. "Anaerobic" tanks (beer, fuel ethanol) are not aerated and usually not sterile.
• Provinces. Current (post-1 July 2025) name first, former unit in brackets on first use, for example Tay Ninh (former Long An). See P. Admin map.
• Absence findings. When we say "we found no", we mean our search did not find it. It is not proof that it does not exist. Each absence is listed as a gap to test by direct inquiry.

#Summary: the industrial base at a glance

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#F1. The fermentation base

#F1.1 Amino acids and MSG

Vietnam's aerobic industrial fermentation is captive inside three amino-acid groups. None publishes a contract-fermentation (toll) offer.

Ajinomoto's Bien Hoa plant holds environmental permit 379/GPMT-BTNMT (9 October 2023) and runs a rice-husk boiler that burns about 100,000 t of husk a year ^1,25 VN-directMedium.

Vedan: published nameplates for Vietnam (all historic; none confirmed as current) ² VN-directMedium:

Vedan: financial signals. Vietnam revenue was USD 166.0 M in 2024, down 4%, and 43.7% of group revenue of USD 380.2 M ^31,32 VN-directMedium. In 2025 it fell to USD 154.3 M (41.2% of the group, down 7.0%), then recovered to USD 79.6 M in H1 2026 (up 8.5%) ^29,30 VN-directHigh. Group revenue was USD 374.7 M and net profit USD 17.1 M in 2025. Capex was USD 9.8 M, spent on replacing old equipment at a Vietnamese subsidiary, so there is no sign of new capacity ²⁹ VN-directHigh. In H1 2026, group revenue was USD 205.6 M (up 11.6%), net profit USD 8.9 M and capex USD 4.3 M ³⁰ VN-directHigh. Vedan blamed weak 2024 demand for MSG, fertiliser and feed, and competition from imported MSG ^31,32 VN-directMedium. It has more than 3,000 staff on a 120 ha site with its own port ^33,23 VN-directMedium.

Group revenue by product, 2025 ²⁹ VN-directHigh:

Vedan tank model. To make 180,000 t/yr of glutamic acid, assume a titre of 150 to 180 g/L, 75 to 80% of the 700 m3 in use, 150 to 180 batches per tank a year and 90% recovery. That needs about 11 to 17 tanks, or about 7,700 to 11,900 m3 of aerobic volume for glutamic acid alone, before lysine and PGA (modelled by our verification step; ^2,24) VN-directLow. The model assumes all tanks are 700 m3. Older tanks may be smaller, which would mean more tanks.

Other amino acids and organic acids. Daesang Vietnam lists L-lysine, L-arginine, L-histidine, DHA biomass and Chlorella among its feed products, but does not say whether they are made in Vietnam ³⁴ VN-directLow. We found no CJ amino-acid fermentation plant in Vietnam; CJ's Vietnamese footprint is food and, until 2026, feed. We found no Vietnamese production of threonine, methionine, citric acid, other organic acids or industrial enzymes. The working assumption is that they are imported, mostly from China. All of these are unverified absences.

#F1.2 Baker's yeast

Baker's yeast is the closest existing process to yeast or fungal single-cell protein: aerobic fed-batch fermentation on molasses. The capacity is small.

#F1.3 Fuel ethanol

Fuel ethanol is the largest fermentation capacity that has stood idle. The E10 mandate is now pulling it back to ethanol.

• National capacity. 450,000 m3/yr, meeting about 40% of demand (September 2025) ⁷; 41,000 m3/month of design across six plants, about 492,000 m3/yr (March 2026) ⁶; 480,000 m3/yr once seven plants run (July 2026) ⁸ VN-directMedium. We use 450,000 to 490,000 m3/yr.
• Output against demand. The three operating plants (Dung Quat 330, the Quang Nam plant 300 and Dong Nai 200 m3/day) have a combined 830 m3/day, and made 20,875 m3 in June 2026 ⁹ VN-directHigh. In mid-2026 they ran at about 22,000 to 25,000 m3 a month, against E10 demand of 92,000 to 100,000 m3 a month ^6,8 VN-directMedium. A 2025 government source put annual E10 demand at 1.2 to 1.5 million m3 ⁷ VN-directMedium. In July 2026, 81,500 m3 of the 103,700 m3 supplied was imported and 22,200 m3 was domestic ⁸ VN-directMedium.

Why it matters. These are the only large fermentation plants in Vietnam that have stood idle. The E10 mandate now gives them a better-paying use than conversion to microbial protein. Converting an ethanol plant to single-cell protein would need aeration retrofits, because ethanol fermenters are not aerated. Their co-products (spent yeast, stillage, distillers' grains) are the more realistic protein link (Feedstock data sheets, sheet C32).

#F1.4 Breweries

Breweries are anaerobic. They matter for alternative protein as sources of spent grain and spent yeast, as a pool of trained fermentation staff, and as possible brownfield sites.

• Market shares in 2023 were Heineken 43.0%, Sabeco 33.9%, Carlsberg 9.2%, Habeco 7.5% and others 6.4%. Consumption was about 3.8 billion litres in 2022 ^10,11 VN-directMedium.
• The Carlsberg Phu Bai investment is reported as VND 3,406 bn (about USD 169 M) in February 2025 ⁴² and as about USD 90 M in August 2025 ⁴³ VN-directMedium. The scopes probably differ; the capacity figure agrees.
• The suspended Heineken plant in Da Nang (former Quang Nam) is about one-tenth the size of Vung Tau (press); the province sought a restart in 2025 ⁴⁰ VN-directLow. Idle breweries already hold permits, utilities and wastewater treatment.

#F1.5 Sauces, seasonings and noodles

• Masan Consumer reported capacity for nearly 120 million L/yr of fish sauce and 600 million packs/yr of instant noodles in 2015. Its plants are in Ho Chi Minh City (former Binh Duong and Ho Chi Minh City), Dong Nai, Hai Phong (former Hai Duong), Nghe An, Lam Dong (former Binh Thuan), An Giang (former Kien Giang, Phu Quoc) and Quang Ninh ⁴⁵ VN-directLow. The figures are old. Masan's soy-sauce process was not documented.
• Daesang's food plant in Hai Phong (former Hai Duong) makes about 14,000 t/yr of ambient foods (sauces, rice cakes, seaweed); the investment was KRW 15 bn, and the plant was expanded by 7,500 m2 from July 2023 ^27,3 VN-directLow.
• Acecook sells several fully vegan noodle products; plant count and capacity were not found ⁴⁶ VN-directLow.

#F1.6 Probiotics and animal biologicals

Only one maker was documented: ANABIO R&D opened a GMP plant for Bacillus spore probiotics in 2011, using technology from VNU University of Science ⁴⁷ VN-directLow. Aquaculture probiotic production is fragmented and was not mapped.

#F1.7 Vaccines and biologics

Biologics makers bring GMP bioreactor skills, trained staff and quality-assurance systems. Their tanks are small and dedicated, so they are not a source of tank volume.

#F1.8 Modelled installed fermentation volume

No one publishes Vietnam's installed fermentation volume. We estimated it for each segment by dividing published output capacity by an assumed productivity per m3 of vessel. This is a modelled estimate, not a measurement VN-directLow. Inputs are Vietnamese; the productivity assumptions are general process values.

• Aerobic, aseptic volume (the kind closest to precision and biomass fermentation) is about 11,000 to 34,000 m3 (our calculation: 10,100 + 750 + 160 to 30,200 + 3,000 + 610). Almost all of it is captive in the three amino-acid groups.
• Check against Vedan. The Vedan tank model in F1.1 gives 7,700 to 11,900 m3 for its 2004 glutamic acid nameplate alone ². That sits at the low end of our MSG range, which assumed 100,000 to 250,000 t/yr for Vedan.
• Arithmetic check. Beer: 3.8 billion L x 14 / 365 / 0.85 = about 171,000 m3; 4.5 billion L x 28 / 365 / 0.85 = about 406,000 m3. Ethanol: 450 million L / 11,900 = about 37,800 m3; 490 million L / 8,400 = about 58,300 m3 (our calculation).
• The biggest unknown is Vedan's current MSG capacity. Vedan's environmental permit or a direct inquiry would settle it.

#F1.9 Contract fermentation: what we did not find

We found no Vietnamese company that offers food-grade contract fermentation (toll or CDMO) at pilot or commercial scale ^22,23,1,20 VN-directLow. The large fermenters run single-product, integrated lines, and none of their websites or press describes toll fermentation. The public centres (the Food Industries Research Institute, FIRI, in Hanoi; the HCMC Biotechnology Center; Saigon Hi-Tech Park) publish no vessel list or contract-fermentation service ^{55,56,20,57,58} VN-directMedium. Vedan (falling Vietnamese MSG sales in 2025, underused starch and glucose lines, a 120 ha site with its own port) and Ajinomoto (already sells fermentation co-products as feed) are the plausible partners for a tolling or joint-venture deal.

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#F2. Feed industry and aquafeed

#F2.1 Scale and utilisation

• Mills and capacity. Vietnam had 269 industrial feed mills with 43.2 Mt/yr of design capacity (December 2023). They produced 18.8 Mt in 2018 and 20.8 Mt in 2022, about 48% utilisation. Foreign-invested (FDI) firms owned 90 mills (33.5% of the count), 51.3% of capacity and 62.5% of output in 2022, up from 59.8% of output in 2018 ¹² VN-directMedium. A securities report puts FDI at about 60% of industrial feed ⁵⁹ VN-directLow.
• Companies. More than 260 feed companies operate, and FDI firms make "more than 60%" of industrial feed (industry survey, December 2025) ⁶⁰ VN-directLow. A 2017 ministry figure was 60 to 65% from about 218 mills, 71 of them FDI ⁶¹ VN-directLow.
• Output. Livestock and poultry compound feed was 21.5 Mt in 2024 and about 22 Mt in 2025 (up about 3%); H1 2026 output was 12.43 Mt (up 7.5%) ^62,63,64 VN-directHigh. These figures exclude aquafeed. On the 2023 capacity figure, 2025 utilisation was about 51% (our calculation, 22 / 43.2). Spare pelleting capacity for trials of new feed ingredients is widespread.
• Target. Decision 1520/QD-TTg sets 30 to 32 Mt of industrial feed output from 40 to 45 Mt of mill capacity by 2030 ⁶⁵ VN-directHigh.

#F2.2 Aquafeed

• Capacity. Installed aquafeed capacity was up to 5.5 Mt/yr in 2025 at 60 to 70% utilisation, which implies 3.3 to 3.85 Mt of output ¹³ VN-directMedium.
• Output by species (2025, industry estimates). Shrimp feed up to 920 kt. Fish feed 3.0 to 3.9 Mt: pangasius 2.0 to 2.5 Mt, tilapia 0.4 to 0.5 Mt, snakehead up to 0.3 Mt, marine fish 80 to 100 kt ¹³ VN-directMedium. USDA's estimate of 6.5 Mt of aquafeed for 2025 does not match; the gap is unresolved (Feed and aquafeed market).
• Buyer concentration. Six firms (Sheng Long/Haid, C.P., Uni-President, Tongwei, Grobest and Gromax) supplied 640 kt of shrimp feed, about 70% of the total ¹³ VN-directMedium. A new protein ingredient therefore has about six real buyers in shrimp feed.
• Extrusion. Floating fish feed is extruded. Haid's Vinh Long complex alone has 7 fish-feed extruders and 15 shrimp-feed lines ⁶⁶ VN-directMedium. These are feed-grade lines, not food-grade high-moisture extrusion.

#F2.3 Main feed groups

• Domestic players named in the press include Dabaco, GreenFeed, BaF, Hoa Phat, Thaco Agri and Masan MEATLife ^59,68,66 VN-directLow. The 2025 Vietnam Report top 10 feed companies were De Heus, GreenFeed Vietnam, Cargill Vietnam, Japfa Comfeed, Sunjin Vina, VNF, Hong Ha Nutrition, Lai Thieu Feed, Mekong Aquafeed and Vina-Ha Nam Feed ⁶⁰ VN-directLow. We found no current volume-based market shares.
• Other shrimp-feed sellers that raised prices in June 2026 include New Hope Vinh Long, Alphafeed and Hai Dai Vinh Long ⁸⁰ VN-directMedium.

#F2.4 Consolidation and new capacity, 2025 to 2026

• Exit. Cargill left aquafeed in May 2025 (trade press) ⁶⁸ VN-directLow.
• Acquisition. Royal De Heus bought CJ's regional feed business, CJ Feed & Care. The deal was announced on 1 October 2025 and completed on 3 March 2026. It covered Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, South Korea and the Philippines, with 17 feed mills in total across the five countries. The price and the Vietnamese share were not disclosed ^70,71 VN-directHigh. De Heus Vietnam now lists 21 plants ⁷² VN-directMedium; it is not clear whether this includes the former CJ mills.

• New high-protein aquafeed capacity. C.P. opened a 124,800 t/yr shrimp-feed plant in Ca Mau on 7 August 2026 ⁶⁷ VN-directMedium. De Heus opened a marine and cold-water fish-feed mill in Vinh Long in July 2026, for feeds with 40 to 50% protein ^81,73 VN-directMedium. These plants are the premium buyers for fishmeal substitutes.

• First commercial novel protein in shrimp feed. Skretting Vietnam and Entobel announced a strategic partnership on 26 November 2025, and commercial production of Skretting shrimp feed containing Entobel's insect meal began that month. This is the first commercial insect-meal shrimp feed in Vietnam (company claim). No inclusion rate or volume was disclosed ⁷⁹ VN-directMedium.
• Prices and tax. Feed prices rose 10 to 14% between January and April 2026 ⁸² VN-directLow, and shrimp-feed makers raised prices by VND 1,200 to 1,500 per kg in early June 2026 ⁸⁰ VN-directMedium. Feed became non-taxable for VAT from 1 July 2025, so mills can no longer deduct the input VAT they pay ⁶⁰ VN-directMedium; see Costs and benchmarks.

#F2.5 Premix and fishmeal plants

• Premix. Cargill Provimi (Dong Nai, 40,000 t/yr) is the only premix plant with a published capacity ⁶⁹ VN-directMedium; De Heus lists one premix plant ⁷². Premix blenders are a low-volume entry route for functional ingredients such as yeast derivatives and postbiotics.
• Fishmeal plants. Not mapped. Vietnam exported USD 430.5 M of fishmeal in 2023, mostly to China, so domestic plants exist at scale ⁸³ VN-directMedium; see Feed and aquafeed market.

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#F3. Soybean crushing

• VAL. Cong ty TNHH Kinh doanh nong san Viet Nam (VAL), a Bunge and Wilmar business at Phu My 1 Industrial Park, Ho Chi Minh City (former Ba Ria-Vung Tau), crushes 2.6 Mt of soybeans a year and makes nearly 2 Mt of meal after a USD 100 M second line (December 2025). It targets 30% of the domestic soybean-meal market. It has no food-grade or protein-isolate line on record ¹⁴ VN-directMedium.
• National crush. 1.9 Mt of soybeans were crushed in 2025, giving 1.48 Mt of meal at 78% extraction; USDA forecasts 2.5 Mt in 2026 and 3.0 Mt in 2027 ⁸⁴ VN-directMedium. Four crush plants operated in 2025 (one in the north, three in the south), and new lines opened in Q1 2026; USDA does not name the crushers ^84,85 VN-directMedium.
• Reading. VAL's stated 2.6 Mt is more than the whole 2025 national crush and close to the 2026 forecast, so it is most likely a design capacity after the second line, not 2025 throughput (our reading). The other crushers remain unnamed.
• Import dependence. Domestic soybeans (42 kt) could supply only about 2.2% of the 2025 crush (our calculation, 42 / 1,900) ⁸⁴. Crushing shifts imports from meal to beans; it does not reduce dependence.

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#F4. Soy, dairy, meat and chay processors

• Plant milks. Other brands on shelf include TH true NUT and Vinasoy's Fami and Veyo ^90,95 VN-directMedium.
• Chay versus meat. Field notes say a brand's chay product is often 17 to 38% cheaper than its meat version. Only one pair (Vissan spring rolls, 38% cheaper) is a high-confidence read ⁹⁰ VN-directLow; see D. Retail formulation audit.
• Do chay specialists. Capacities are unknown for An Nhien, Au Lac (Anlac Vegan Food), Thoai An, Top.V (Agrex Saigon), Song Huong Foods (Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Chanh) and Saky Foods ^90,96 VN-directLow. The retail audit logged more than 20 local chay brands, and none publishes plant capacity ⁹⁰. An Nhien is a registered trading company that sells soy and barley textured-protein chay under its own brand (since late 2014), is Halal-certified and claims exports to Korea, Europe and North America; no factory is disclosed ²¹ VN-directMedium. An earlier lead listed Xuan Hong as a chay maker; the only Xuan Hong we found is a cassava starch processor in Tay Ninh ⁹⁷ VN-directLow.
• Private labels. Retailer private-label chay exists: Coop Select (reportedly made by GN Foods in Tay Ninh; not re-verified) and Choice L for Lotte ⁹⁰ VN-directLow. Imported Chinese canned "plant based" luncheon meats sit beside Vissan's local canned chay ⁹⁰.

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#F5. Starch, glucose and maltodextrin

• Cassava starch. 120 to 150 factories, with 11.3 Mt of design and 8.62 Mt of actual root capacity in 2023 ^17,18 VN-directMedium. Tay Ninh has 65 to 68 of them and 6.4 Mt/yr of root capacity ^98,18 VN-directMedium. Details in Feedstock data sheets (sheets C2 to C5).
• Vedan. Between 1994 and 2004 Vedan built 140,000 t/yr of glucose syrup, about 216,000 t/yr of native tapioca starch lines (72,000 + 72,000 + 36,000 + 36,000) and 40,000 t/yr of modified starch (nameplates) ² VN-directMedium. It lists glucose syrup (including an EU-organic grade) for sale to third parties ²² VN-directMedium. The Phuoc Long starch plant sits in the cassava zone of Dong Nai (former Binh Phuoc) ⁵⁴.
• Daesang. Tapioca starch and maltose syrup plant in Tay Ninh (2005); capacity not found ²⁷ VN-directMedium.
• Maltodextrin. We found no Vietnamese producer.
• Reading. Cassava glucose syrup is the obvious local carbon source for fermentation, and it is already made at scale next to the aerobic fermenters.

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#F6. Extrusion, spray drying and protein isolates: absence findings

• Imports fill the gap. In 2023 Vietnam imported USD 31.06 M of wheat gluten (HS 1109, 59% from China), USD 33.98 M of protein concentrates and textured protein (HS 2106.10; United States 46%, China 27%) and USD 22.18 M of peptones and other protein substances (HS 3504, including some isolates; China 45%) ^100,101,102 VN-directMedium. The quantities in the database look imputed, so we quote values only. MFN import duties in 2023 were 10% (wheat gluten), 5% (HS 2106.10) and 3% (HS 3504) ^103,104 VN-directMedium.
• Equipment makers. We could not confirm a Vietnamese sales or service entity for Buhler, Clextral, Famsun, GEA or Alfa Laval; their pages failed or gave no Vietnamese detail ^{105,106,107,108,109} generalLow.

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#F7. OEM and co-packing

• Chay OEM already works. Retailer private labels (Coop Select, Choice L) show that contract manufacture of chay products is an established model ⁹⁰ VN-directLow.
• Frozen formats. Vissan, CJ Cau Tre, Cholimex, SG Food and GN Foods already make chay on meat or frozen-food lines. They are the most plausible co-packers for plant-based products and first customers for protein ingredients.
• Plant milks. Vinasoy and the dairy majors have UHT capacity. We found no evidence that they sell it to others.
• Aerobic fermentation. No toll offer exists (F1.9). The route is a structured deal with Vedan or Ajinomoto.
• Feed trials. Mills run at about half capacity (F2.1), so pelleting trial slots should be easy to find.

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#F8. Engineering and equipment

Plants in Vietnam are designed by foreign engineering firms and fitted out by local contractors. We found no local maker of sanitary stainless fermenters, extruders or spray dryers in either research wave.

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#F9. Shared infrastructure (summary)

Saigon Hi-Tech Park covers 913 ha (phase 1 of 300 ha and phase 2 of 613 ha), with 165 projects and USD 14.08 bn invested; it has an incubator (SHTP-IC), an R&D centre (SHTP Labs) and a Biotech Center ⁵⁵ VN-directMedium. FIRI (Hanoi, with a Ho Chi Minh City branch) has an ISO/IEC 17025 lab, a microbial culture collection and an experimental production and technology-transfer centre, and lists C.P., CJ, Habeco and Vissan as clients ²⁰ VN-directMedium. The National Institute for Food Control, Eurofins Sac Ky Hai Dang and QUATEST 3 test food and feed ^113,114,115 VN-directMedium. None publishes a food-grade fermentation service of 100 L to 1,000 L or more. Details are in L. Labs and talent.

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#Gaps and how to close them

See Q. Open questions for the full register and R. Disagreements for the capacity conflicts (Vedan, De Heus, C.P., ethanol, Carlsberg, VNVC).

#Related data files

• facilities.csv: 82 facilities (fermentation, starch, breweries, feed and aquafeed mills, soy, dairy and meat processors, biologics, parks, labs and engineering firms) with capacity, unit, year, relevant capability, whether they serve third parties, province (current and former), sources, label, confidence and a change log of wave 2 corrections.
• fermentation_volume_estimate.csv: the modelled vessel-volume estimate by segment, with capacity inputs and productivity assumptions.
• engineering_suppliers.csv: nine engineering contractors and equipment vendors with their Vietnamese presence.
• companies.csv: the company directory behind E. Directory.
• pilot_labs.csv: pilot plants, testing labs and parks (L. Labs and talent).
• feedstocks.csv and macro_indicators.csv: the raw materials and feed volumes these plants use.
• tariffs.csv: import duties on protein ingredients.
• disagreements.csv and open_questions.csv: conflicting capacities and open questions.