The International Development and Investment Corporation (IDI) – Vietnam’s leading pangasius exporter – has begun work on a green bond-financed seafood processing-plant in the Mekong Delta region.
The firm held a ceremony on 7 January to mark the start of construction on its new Hoa Ky plant, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said in a statement.
The plant, equipped with machinery sourced from Europe, is designed to process around 120 metric tons (MT) of fish per day, producing 20,000 MT of frozen fish fillets annually.
Construction on the plant is expected to take 12 to 14 months, after which IDI's total processing capacity will exceed 500 MT per day.
The plant will require an investment of nearly VND 700 billion (USD 27.5 million, EUR 26.8 million), financed through green bonds recently issued by IDI, according to VASEP.
This marks Vietnam's first aquaculture green bond and the first of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region, though the country has issued more general green and blue bonds in the past.
"Vietnam's green transition relies heavily on private capital, and the launch of innovative financing instruments such as blue and green bonds offers a new source of funding for climate-related projects," International Finance Corporation Country Manager for Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos Thomas Jacobs said in 2024.
Besides construction on the Hoa Ky plant, the proceeds from the IDI green bond issuance will be used to finance a high-quality fish breeding center in the Mekong Delta and support plans to implement solar energy solutions in its production processes, helping ensure a clean and sustainable supply chain from aquaculture farms to customers' tables, IDI said.
In March 2024, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) increased antidumping duties for five Vietnamese pangasius exporters, including IDI, based on a period review covering 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022.
The new rate of USD 0.18 (EUR 0.17) per kilogram exceeded the preliminary rate of USD 0.14 (EUR 0.13) applied to these companies and others under the "Vietnam-wide entity" classification.
However, in a report released in April 2024, IDI said that the rate of USD 0.18 (EUR 0.17) per kilogram was significantly lower than the previous review’s rate of USD 2.39 (EUR 2.32), opening a substantial opportunity for it to expand pangasius exports to the U.S.
Attempting to take advantage, in July 2024, IDI signed a strategic development partnership with Patagonia Cuisine, a U.S.-based company, to enhance its market presence in the U.S. and South America, IDI said in a statement.
IDI set a 2024 target of VND 8.499 trillion (USD 334.7 million, EUR 325 million) in sales, which would be up 17.6 percent year over year, and a net profit of VND 276 billion (USD 10.9 million, EUR 10.6 million), nearly four times higher than the VND 73 billion (USD 2.9 million, EUR 2.8 million) reported in 2023.
IDI’s seafood products are exported to 50 countries and territories globally.
