Vietnamese pangasius producer and processor Vinh Hoan Corporation has broken ground on its new food-grade fish oil factory, it has announced.
After the launch of its pangasius skin-based collagen and gelatin projects in 2015, the new factory -- based in the Chau Thanh district of Dong Thap province -- is expected to add further value via the utilization of fish by-products, the company said.
The new unit should be able to process 100 metric tons of a material per day, and Vinh Hoan wants to have it operational in the third quarter of 2020.
"The main value differentiation [sic] of this factory are the unique low trans-fat technique via a fully automatic system and the real-time data collection system which provides the most accurate result."
The new facility is based at the same site as subsidiary Vinh Phuoc Food Co., at which Vinh Hoan had aimed to have doubled the processing capacity to 300t of pangasius fillets per day by 2020.
However, Vinh Hoan CEO Tam Nguyen told Undercurrent News this has not happened. The firm has instead prioritized upgrades at its other subsidiary, Thanh Binh Dong Thap Fisheries, which it acquired in 2017.
"Thanh Binh is now processing 50% more than last year. Our plan to increase the processing capacities of these two subsidiaries depend on (i) availability of workers in the area, and (ii) of course our sales and sales forecast," said Tam. "Given the uncertain situation for the moment, although we are processing normally, we are not rushing to invest in fillet processing capacity."
Source: undercurrentnews