The company has succeeded in turning the oft-discarded pieces into ingredients and spices for the food processing industry, he said. In the near future, the Japanese firm and Cần Thơ University will release products made of tra fish and rice bran.

According to Lê Việt Dũng, vice rector of Cần Thơ University, the two sides signed an agreement in 2018 to study food processing technologies that target unused parts and could bring big profits.

Takesho has provided a US$1 million experimentation system for the university and it is expected to be fully operational in 2020, he said.

A Singaporean company, ranking fifth in the world in terms of ingredient and spice market share, has agreed to purchase the outputs of the study, he added.

Takesho expects construction of the spice plant to start in early 2020 at the Trà Nóc 2 Industrial Park, where many food processing firms are already operating with high supply of resources.

Nguyễn Thị Kiều Duyên, deputy director of Cần Thơ Industrial Park Management Unit, asked Takesho to set up a legal entity in the city as required so that construction can soon start.

Dương Tấn Hiển, Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee, vowed to support the firm to build the plant in January 2020. — VNS