The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have urged localities to stabilise pork prices which have been on the rise.

Pork prices have been on the rise

Over the past two months, pork prices have increased, even reaching VND56,000 (USD2.54) per kilo live weight, up 2.5 times compared to the same period of last year. This has caused retailed pork prices to increase to VND130,000-150,000 per kilo. 

The country’s current pork prices are among the highest in the world.

According to Nguyen Xuan Duong, head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Department for Livestock Production, that last year, the price of live pigs was on the decrease, down to VND30,000 (USD1.30) per kilo, the lowest for the last 10 years, down from the previous VND40,000 (USD1.70) following China’s halt to Vietnamese pig imports. Following this move, many people abandoned pig breeding which led to the limited supply.

High pork prices would affect the country’s consumer price index, so, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have asked cities and provinces to report the number of local pigs from now to February 2019 to the government.

Localities are also required to disseminate the information about the rising pork prices to restrict speculation to push pork prices up. The price hikes would also result in the flooding of illegally-imported pork into Vietnam.

Localities are called to control pork prices not to surpass VND50,000 per kilo live weight.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have also called people to balance daily food content, meaning that they should use other products such as eggs or other kinds of poultries, instead of just focusing on pork.

Lao Dong/Dtinews