Long Xuyên, Vietnam-based Nam Viet Joint Stock Company (Navico) has resumed exporting pangasius to the United States, after leaving the market in 2014.
A senior Navico official confirmed to SeafoodSource on 19 August the company shipped five containers of pangasius to the U.S. earlier in August. SSI Securities Corporation, Vietnam’s top securities firm, said Navico had earned USD 5.00 (EUR 5.00) per kilogram on its U.S. pangasius exports, similar to that of top exporter Vinh Hoan, local media reported.
Navico had been seeking permission from the U.S. Department of Commerce to export to the U.S. again after halting shipments in the midst of the so-called “whitefish wars” which saw the U.S. raise trade barriers to pangasius from Vietnam.
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 (DOC) 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, which allowed the company to successfully export to the U.S. 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 metric tons (MT) per day.
Navico has also branched into other industrial sectors. Navico and its South Korean partner, Amicogen, began work on a new collagen and gelatin factory in the Mekong Delta in December 2021. Navico expects to begin a trial run at the first phase of the project in August 2022, with a designed capacity of 780 MT per year of collagen and gelatin production annually. According to SSI, the South Korean partner will be in charge of selling all products from the plant once it is operational.
Photo courtesy of Navico
