An Giang, Vietnam-based pangasius firm Nam Viet Joint Stock Company – or Navico – and its South Korean partner, Amicogen, have begun work on a new collagen and gelatin factory in the Mekong Delta.
Construction on the plant, which is slated to produce collagen and gelatin from pangasius skin, had been put on hold from its initial planned groundbreaking date in August 2020 and its rescheduled date of August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ground was officially broken at the site on 2 December, an official from Navico told SeafoodSource. The first phase of the project will cost nearly USD 6 million (EUR 5.3 million), and will be built on an area of 9,600 square meters in Can Tho City in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.
Navico and Amicogen expect to put the first phase of the project into operation in the fourth quarter of 2022, with a designed capacity of 800 metric tons (MT) per year of collagen and gelatin products, the officialsaid. A move-forward decision on the development of the second phase of the project will be decided at a future date, depending on market demand.
The pangasius skin for the factory will be supplied by Navico processing plants, which have a combined capacity of 450 MT of raw material pangasius per day. Pangasius skin is priced at USD 0.50 (EUR 0.44) per kilogram. But a kilogram of collagen produced from pangasius skin can be sold at between USD 25 and USD 40 (EUR 22 and EUR 35) per kilogram, according to Navico.
Amicogen and Navico created a formal 50-50 joint venture to implement the project last year, after talks were initiated in 2019.
Currently, Vinh Hoan, Vietnam's leading producer and exporter of pangasius, is the only producer of collagen from pangasius skin in the country.
Navico has recently undertaken plans to diversify its business operations to include fertilizer and rooftop solar production, a move that has been accelerated by the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.
Photo courtesy of Navico
