Vietnamese dairy producer TH Group, better known as TH True Milk, on Wednesday opens work at the first phase of its billion dollar milk processing plant and dairy farm project in Russia.

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who is in his first foreign visit to Russia, attended a ceremony to mark the beginning of the project. It is considered as Vietnam’s biggest investment project currently active in Russia, TH said in a statement on May 18.

The firm will pour $500 million in the first phase, from which it expects to get the first batch of diary products in mid 2017.

The Vietnamese private company will invest around $2.7 billion in the three-phase project over 10 years. It hopes to raise 350,000 cows and reach milk processing capacity of 5,900 tons/day after the third phase, TH said, adding that it has another plan to set up 300 retail dairy stores under the name of ‘True Mart’ across Russia.

On May 16, TH signed a cooperation agreement with Russia’s Kaluga province to set up three dairy farms worth $190 million in total in the latter’s two districts. The farms are part of the first phase, according to TH.