Tata Coffee has opened its first free-dried instant coffee plant outside of its native India after GEA, a tech supplier for food processing, completed work on the new Vietnam plant.

After Brazil, Vietnam is the world’s second largest producer of green coffee and the new plant based in Binh Duong Province produces 5,000 metric tonnes per year of free-dried coffee.

GEA supplied the entire production line from roast bean treatment right through to the packing of the freeze-dried powder.

This isn’t the first time GEA has undertaken work for Tata Coffee, having built a coffee extraction and evaporation plant for the company in 2013.

“This type of project is ideal for us at GEA because our expertise and scope of supply allows us to build the entire coffee line using our own resources,” said Kim Knudsen, Head of Sales, Coffee and Freeze Drying at GEA.

“This means we can maintain control and take responsibility for the entire project from start to finish.”