Seafood firm stock rises as Russian lifts catfish ban
The shares of Nam Viet Corp., the country’s biggest catfish processor, surged for the second straight session after a newspaper reported that a ban by Russia on imports has been lifted following an investigation.
Russia may readmit the shipments, which were suspended in December on safety grounds, after the hygiene probe, Viet Nam News said Friday, citing Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Luong Le Phuong. Phan Thanh Tai, a Nam Viet executive, said by phone he had also heard the ban had been dropped.
Nam Viet rose 4.67 percent to VND11,200 on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange.
“Russia is a major market as we have been in this market since 2004,” Tai, assistant to the deputy general director of finance, said. Russia typically accounted for about 40 percent of Nam Viet’s total exports, he said.
Russia suspended all catfish imports from Vietnam on December 20 amid concern about food hygiene and safety standards, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry had said in a statement on its website last December.
Vietnam shipped $200 million worth of the products to Russia last year, or 16 percent of its total catfish exports, according to Friday’s report in Viet Nam News.
Nam Viet, based in the Mekong Delta province of An Giang, had profits of VND106 billion ($6 million) last year, Tai said.
Bloomberg, Thanh nien
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