The price of pigs in Vietnam has been slumping in recent days as China has suddenly suspended imports, owners of pig farms and traders said.

A truck carrying pigs from Vietnam to China.

Nguyen Van Hanh, the owner of Minh Phu pig farm in Hanoi’s My Duc District, said last week that firms which buy pigs for export to China reported that their Chinese partners had stopped importing pigs from Vietnam, resulting in over 100 vehicles full of pigs being stuck at northern border gates.

Hanh said pigs are sold at VND55,000-56,000 a kilogram in the north while the price has dropped by VND2,000 to VND52,000 per kilogram in the south.

The animal health department in the northern province of Lang Son said no pig transporting trucks have crossed the border to China via Chi Ma border gate since April 28. Before the date, the border gate saw hundreds of tons of pigs were transported to the northern neighbor a day.

Traders said a pig weighing a quintal could lose one to two kilograms a day, equivalent to VND100,000, if such trucks are stuck at the border gates with China. Therefore, a vehicle loaded with 100-200 pigs will suffer a loss of about VND20 million a day.

Nguyen Duc Trong, deputy head of the Livestock Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said last week that China had stopped importing pigs from Vietnam and that the department did not know when the neighboring country would resume imports.

Trong said pig prices surged when China imported large volumes. Before the Lunar New Year (Tet) in February, the price of lean pigs stood at about VND42,000 per kilogram in the north, but soared to VND56,000 per kilogram after that.

At the end of the last quarter when pig prices skyrocketed, people rushed to raise pigs but prices have dipped since China stopped imports. Previously, around 300 tons of pigs crossed the border to China a day.

According to Hanh, China’s sudden border gate closure for Vietnam’s agricultural products happens almost every year.

Trong said selling farm produce to China via border trade is a lucrative yet risky business due to China’s on-off border trade policy.