Navico, Amicogen aim to start work at delayed collagen, gelatin plant in August

An Giang, Vietnam-based pangasius firm Nam Viet Joint Stock Company, – or Navico – and its South Korean partner Amicogen hope to start work at their delayed collagen and gelatin factory in August.

Construction on the facility, which is slated to produce collagen and gelatin from pangasius skin, has been delayed from a planned groundbreaking date of August 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier this month, Amicogen sent experts to Vietnam to work with Navico to finalize the plant's design. The factory will cost nearly USD 4 million (EUR 3.4 million), and will be built on an area of 9,600 square meters in Can Tho City in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, according to Navico. The pangasius skin for the factory will be supplied by Navico processing plants which have a combined capacity of 450 metric tons (MT) of material pangasius per day.

Pangasius skin is priced at USD 0.50 (EUR 0.40) per kilogram. But a kilogram of collagen produced from pangasius skin can be sold at between USD 25.00 and USD 40.00 (EUR 21.00 and EUR 33.60) per kilogram, according to Navico.

Amicogen and Navico created a formal 50-50 joint venture to implement the project last year. Once complete, the plant will produce 800 MT per year of collagen and gelatin products. That total can be doubled to 1,600 MT per year, depending on market demand, Navico said.

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. The company suffered in 2020 as its sales plunged 23.2 percent year-over-year, dropping to VND 3.44 trillion (USD 148.6 million, EUR 124.5 million), with its net profit dropping 71.3 percent to VND 202 billion (USD 8.7 million, EUR 7.3 million).  

Photo courtesy of Navico