A consumer selects pork products at a supermarket

Imports from Canada accounted for 25 percent of the total, Germany 19 percent, Poland 14 percent, Brazil 9.5 percent, the US 8.39 percent, Spain 6.72 percent and Russia 4 percent.

Vietnam has allowed the import of meat and related products from 24 countries, with pork and related products from 19 countries.

At a meeting with pig farming businesses in late March, Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung assigned the Ministry of Finance to consider and propose tax cuts on pork imports soon.

He also told the MARD to coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Foreign Ministry to give maximum support for Vietnamese firms to seek suitable supplies in exporting countries and import pork in line with the PM’s directions.

Meanwhile, the MARD said it has instructed localities and worked with businesses to increase pig farming so as to reduce pork prices.

During the reviewed period, Vietnam also imported over 37,104 tonnes of beef and buffalo meat, which respectively surged about 200 percent and 135 percent year on year. Most of the beef was from Australia, the US, Russia and Canada while the majority of imported buffalo meat was from India.

It also bought some 78,376 tonnes of poultry meat and related products from foreign sources, up 150 percent year on year, mostly from the US, the Republic of Korea, Brazil, Poland, the Netherlands and Russia, the Department of Animal Health said./.