VietNamNet Bridge – Binh Dinh's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is trying to convince its partner in the nearby Central Highlands province of Gia Lai to remove a ban on livestock imports.

A truck transporting cattle and poultry in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai. Binh Dinh's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development tries to convince its partner in Gia Lai to remove a ban on livestock imports.

Last August, the Gia Lai People's Committee set a temporary prohibition on imports of cattle and poultry and their products or forest animals being raised as pets. The ban also applies to animals being transported through the province.

Phan Trong Ho, director of Binh Dinh's agriculture department, said that the ban meant products from his province could not be transported through Gia Lai via National Highway 19 to other provinces in the region such as Dak Lak, Dak Nong and Kon Tum in the Central Highlands or Binh Phuoc in the central region.

"This has caused lots of difficulties for providers of cattle and poultry products in Binh Dinh," Ho said.

K'Pa Thuyen, director of Gia Lai's agriculture department, said that the ban was intended to stop diseases from entering the province and prevent the transport of illegally imported cattle and poultry from Laos and Cambodia.

"When the situation calms down, we will consult the provincial People's Committee to remove the ban," Thuyen said.

However, officials in Binh Dinh Province rejected the excuse, saying that there was no disease in their province.

Currently, there are 267,000 buffalos and cows, 678,000 pigs and more than 6.5 million poultry in Binh Dinh Province. Every month, some 10,000 pigs, 700 buffalos and cows and 30,000 poultry are exported to Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) provinces.

Source: VNS