E-Malt.com News article: Belgium & Vietnam: Belgian forwarder gains Belgian malt export business

Ho Chi Minh City based Aan Boord Cargo, a Belgian owned freight forwarder, has begun shipping Belgian produced malt for the brewing industry in Vietnam, PR Leap communicated on June 25, 2005. The malt is produced by Flanders based leading malt producer and exporter Boortmalt NV and sold to Vietnam buyers under sales contract of the Belgian trading firm Mondoo to be used in brewing beer in Vietnam. Currently the major brewers in Vietnam are Heineken/Tiger, Carlsberg, Fosters/La Rue Export, San Miguel as well as several locally well known Vietnamese beers.

Aan Boord Cargo, a founding member of Aeroceanetwork, is one of only two Belgian logistics firms on the ground in Vietnam, the other being Ahlers Vina Logistics joint-venture of the well-known Ahlers Group. But Aan Boord Cargo has the distinction of being the only Belgian owned logistics company with Belgian management in country. Aan Boord Cargo’s managing director, Mr. Geert Van Doorslaer, who came originally to Vietnam from Dubai three years ago in order to win business for Barwil, worked closely in pursuit of this malt business with Aan Boord Cargo’s Belgian partner, fellow Aeroceanetwork member De Keyser Expeditions BV to, win this account. “I worked very hard with De Keyser Expeditions’s point man, Jan Segers, to nail down this business” said Van Doorslaer, “and in thanks our combined persistence, the hard work is paying off.”

Geert’s activities are not only limited to leading Aan Boord Cargo and representing them within Aeroceanetwork. He is also an elected director of Ho Chi Minh City’s Belgium-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce (Beluxcham) where he is Beluxcham’s Chargé d’Affaires for the Young Business Association. But besides that Geert, as a Belgian, is very proud of winning this Boortmalt business. “Naturally, I am a patriotic lover of Belgian beer. We have the very best beers in the world,” proudly claims Van Doorslaer, “but unfortunately we don’t get enough of it here in Vietnam. Because of this I am heartened by the fact that when I do drink beer here, it is brewed with Belgian malt sold by Belgian traders, and shipped by Belgian shippers. It’s surely the next best thing!”


26 June, 2005