An Giang, Vietnam-based pangasius firm Nam Viet Joint Stock Company (Navico) will invest an additional VND 38 billion (USD 1.62 million, EUR 1.63 million) in its collagen and gelatin plant being built in the south of Vietnam, according to a company resolution passed 20 August.
The additional funds will help raise the charter capital of Amicogen Nam Viet, a joint venture between Navico and South Korean Amicogen created to implement the project, to VND 84.48 billion (USD 3.61 million, EUR 3.62 million).
Amicogen and Navico created the 50-50 joint venture in 2020. Navico did not clarify the new holding structure following the latest funding addition.
Navico and Amicogen began work on the new collagen and gelatin factory in the Mekong Delta in December 2021. Navico expects to begin a trial run of the first phase of the project in August 2022, with a designed capacity of 780 metric tons (MT) of collagen and gelatin production annually. According to Vietnam’s top securities firm SSI, the South Korean partner will be in charge of selling all products from the plant once it is operational.
Earlier this month, Navico officially resumed its pangasius exports to the United States, after leaving the market in 2014.
Beginning in 2002, Navico focused heavily on exporting pangasius to the U.S., and became the single-biggest exporter of pangasius in the U.S. in 2007. But it halted exports of pangasius to U.S. in 2014 as the U.S. moved to impose high antidumping duties on pangasius products from Vietnam, according to Navico.
However, the U.S. Department of Commerce in its final review of the 16th period review (POR16) from 1 August, 2018 through 31 July, 2019, granted Navico an antidumping duty of zero percent for the period. With exports now resumed, Navico has set the long-term goal of taking over 10 percent of the total U.S. total pangasius market.
Navico operates around 850 hectares of pangasius farms in Vietnam’s southern region, along with processing plants with a combined capacity of 1,050 MT per day.
Photo by Toan Dao/SeafoodSource
