VietNamNet Bridge – The Veterinary Department’s recent proposal to import breeder chicks from China for commercial farming has raised eyebrows among experts and chicken farming businesses. The domestic market is facing an oversupply, with many farms forced to cull chicks due to a lack of buyers.

Illustrative image -- File photo

The agency under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reasons that the proposed import would help better control poultry diseases in Vietnam. On the contrary, experts told Tuoi Tre newspaper that the import, if approved by the Government, would threaten the domestic poultry sector as China is where a couple of new strains of the bird flu virus were detected in previous years, and the quality of chicks is low.

Local farmers can easily buy one-day-old chicks at VND8,000-8,500 each in the nation’s south while the import price of Chinese chicks is VND18,000-19,000. Moreover, chicks supplied by major Thai, Korean, Indonesian and European companies in Vietnam are better in terms of quality and have a clear origin.

The foreign-invested companies in southern provinces alone supply a total of around two million chicks a week, which is much lower than their combined capacity since supply outpaces demand, according to the livestock association in the southwestern region. The association has described the proposal as absurd.

The Vietnam Poultry Association has also protested against the proposal, saying the ministry should work with relevant agencies to deal with rampant imports of chicks from China into the northern border provinces of Quang Ninh and Lang Son to prevent poultry diseases, instead of making such a proposal.

Livestock is one of the sectors which will suffer the most from the country’s international integration process due to its weak competitiveness. Over the years, agricultural firms have been encouraged to invest more in developing and producing high-quality young and breeder animals and fowls to replace imports.

So, if the import of chicks from China translates into reality, it would deliver a blow to production and investment plans of local enterprises and smallholder poultry farmers, and even cause health risks due to Chinese chicken diseases.

SGT