Vinh Tien Limited Company is established in 2003. At present, the Company has a factory to process exporting coconut candy on the area of 7000 m2 at in Phu Tan precinct, Ben Tre city, Ben Tre province.  The company had 230 employees and the main product is coconut candy for export with main markets of China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and America.

Before conducting CP, environmental pollution by water and air pollution is serious problem in Vinh Tien Limited Company. The company’s wastewater exceeded the limit of TCVN 5945-2005 several times (COD (2180mg/l) was exceeded 27.2 times, BOD (857mg/l) was exceeded 10.7 times, coliform was exceeded 116 times. The company’s emission is mainly from combustion processes for heating for cooking and concentrated of coconut milk. The amount of wood large enough to use so CO and SO2 concentration is high, exceeding 4.5 times and 1.75 times respectively compared with National standard. For solving these problems, in 2008, the company received the support from the Ministry of Industry and Trade via the Cleaner Production in Industry Component (CPI) to conduct Cleaner Production Assessment and Application

Under the supporting of Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Company had implemented CP assessment. During the first phase (from August 2009 to January 2010), the company established a CP team led by Ms. Dang Thi Truc Lan Chi –Director of the company and other 7 members to assess the whole production line. After the Cleaner production assessment (CPA) and identification of waste line, the Team has conducted mass and energy balances for the whole production line. All collected data have been used to analyze and identify Cleaner Production options for each production step.

After conducting CPA and identifying improvement options, the Company has carried out some no-cost and low-cost good housekeeping options with a total budget of VND 169 millions. Such application has brought about VND 456 millions in 2009 and VND 526 millions in 2010. In the phase 2 (from February 2010 to November 2010), the Company has actively implemented high-investment options to improve the product quality and solve completely the environmental issues at place and received 1,4 billion VND from CPI’s support for technology change by changing to 3-step reverse washing to save water, using mechanic mixing and condensing system with indirect heat supply with steam to reduce wood consumption, reducing waste and improving working condition for workers, using automatic grinding and pressing technology with frequency controllers in close system, using screw processing to recover coconut milk, improving wastewater treatment system to ensure that treated water to meet the Vietnam’s discharge standard. Benefits from those solutions are 526 million dong in 2010 and 500 million dong in the first quarter in 2011 by reducing raw material consumption, chemical and environmental treatment cost.

Particular benefits derived from Cleaner Production are as follows: