The smart warehouse of Vinamilk with European technology has a capacity of more than 27,000 pallets of goods. Photo: X.HEAR

Make by-products precious products

Besides the association with domestic enterprises, some businesses also boldly expanded cooperation with foreign enterprises to increase deep processing capabilities. A large-scale pangasius processing factory has just started construction by Nam Viet International Development Joint Stock Company (Navico) at Thot Not Industrial Park, Can Tho City in early December 2021.

This is a joint venture project between Navico and Amicogen (South Korea) with capital of US$24 million, built in two phases. In which, phase 1, with a total investment of nearly US$6 million, covers an area of ​​more than 9,600 m2, a capacity of 800 tons of finished collagen and gelatin products per year, meeting South Korean export standards; production capacity of over 450 tons of raw materials per day.

Especially, raw materials for processing collagen and galactin from catfish skin are removed during the processing of fish for export, provided by factories of Nam Viet Group.

The project to extract collagen peptides and gelatin from pangasius skin is part of Nam Viet Group's large-scale closed chain of production systems and is also a strategic project in the plan to transform production from basic products to value-added products with high technical content, bringing many values and benefits to society.

With this cooperation, Amicogen Joint Venture and Navico set an ambition to provide the first C&G value-added products to the Vietnamese market by 2022. Fresh fish skin is priced around US$0.5 per kg, if collagen production can reach US$25-40 per kg.

Navico’s new direction on production and processing of collagen peptides and gelatin according to new technologies is completely consistent with the Government’s scientific and technological development orientation, contributing to improving people’s quality of life and economic growth.

According to the leader of the Agricultural Products Processing and Market Development Department (the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), for pangasius, the utilization and processing of all by-products, especially related to collagen from fish skin, offers great value. Every year, we produce 1.5 - 1.7 million tons of pangasius and in this processing, about 65 - 70% are by-products including head, bones, organs and skin.

Currently, some businesses also invest in technology to extract collagen and gelatin from fish skin. The investment in these technologies helps to completely close the pangasius production and processing chain. Utilizing by-products can add 15-25% value to the entire pangasius farming and processing chain. As for collagen, the global demand is from 900,000 to 950,000 tons of collagen per year, equivalent to US$7.5 – 8 billion. If this stage is done well, it will bring added value to the pangasius production.

Increase production scale

Recently, a super dairy factory in the Northern region deployed by Vinamilk and its member company Vilico was approved by the People's Committee of Hung Yen province. As the leading dairy enterprise in Vietnam, with 13 farms and 13 dairy factories across the country, of which there are two super factories, Vietnam Dairy Factory (producing liquid milk, with a capacity of 800 million liters per year) and Vietnam Powdered Milk Factory (producing powdered milk, with a capacity of nearly 54,000 tons per year), Vinamilk decided to cooperate with Vilico, a member of the group, to invest and build a factory for milk and dairy products, in order to improve production capacity and meet development goals in the new period.

The dairy factory project in Hung Yen has a total estimated investment of VND4,600 billion (nearly US$200 million), on an area of nearly 25 hectares, the total design capacity is estimated at 400 million liters per year and is expected to be built in two phases.

The dairy factory in Hung Yen is one of the key projects in the development strategy of Vinamilk and Vilico in the next 5 -10 years and is oriented to become a leading super dairy factory in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

Mai Kieu Lien, Vinamilk's General Director, Vilico's Chairman of the Board of Directors, said that with the readiness of investment resources and experience in building and operating a system of factories in Vietnam, in which there are many large-scale factories, meeting international standards, Vinamilk and Vilico will invest in implementing and managing the project effectively and on schedule. It is expected that the operation of the project will contribute to creating momentum for the development of Vinamilk and Vilico and at the same time contribute to the development of the dairy processing industry in Hung Yen in particular and the local economy in general.

All of Vinamilk's current factories have applied the world's leading advanced technologies, applied 4.0 technology in management and operation and met international standards.

This helps Vinamilk not only meet the requirements of the domestic market but also meet product standards in many export markets with strict standards.

So far, Vinamilk products have been exported to 56 countries such as the US, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China, and increasingly enhance the brand value of Vietnamese dairy products in the international market.

Also related to the field of milk production, in November 2021, NutiFood Nutrition Food Joint Stock Company (Nutifood) completed investment procedures in Quang Nam Ngoc Linh Ginseng Pharmaceutical Trading Joint Stock Company (Quasapharco), officially setting foot in the "field" of herbs, especially rare herbs.

Talking about the investment in Quasapharco, Tran Bao Minh, Vice Chairman of Nutifood's Board of Directors and new Chairman of the Board of Directors of Quasapharco, said that Vietnam is a very "attractive" country in the eyes of Western countries with the treasures of natural herbs as well as esoteric remedies left from ancient times.

With more than 20 years of research in the nutrition industry and a team of experienced nutritionists at home and abroad, Nutifood wishes to bring the nutritional values of Vietnamese herbs to serve human health. Another is to build brands of Vietnamese herbal products in the international market.