Bac, who has raised pigs for 20 years, said he never faced such difficulties in the last five years. Since 2017, pig farmers have faced oversupply, epidemics, and then a price storm. 

Bac said the animal feed price has been increasing since late 2020, while the transport cost from factories to farms has been rising because the fuel price climbed to its peak and has stayed high. 

While the production cost keeps rising, the pork price is falling.

Bac estimated that it takes 5.5 months to raise a pig’s weigh to 120 kilos. The total cost, including bank loan interest, medicine and labor cost, was about VND6.5 million. 

However, he sold the pigs that he raised for 5.5 months for VND5.76 million, which meant a loss of VND730,000 per pig. 

He believes that other households will incur a loss of VND1 million if they sell pigs at this time, because they do not produce breeders.

Bac’s farm has 10,000-11,000 pigs and puts out 2,000-2,500 pigs to the market each month. He also raises 1,500 pigs to produce breeders.

“Selling live pigs and pig breeders bring losses,” Bac said, adding that he sells 6-kg breeders for VND1.1 million, while production cost is VND1.2 million.

With the commercial pork and pig breeders sold every month, Bac estimated that he has incurred a loss of VND2 billion.

“I still try to maintain my herd of pigs, despite big losses. Smaller farms all have reduced their herds as there has been no sign of recovery,” he said.

Live pig prices are VND48,000-50,000 per kilogram in some localities. In some cities/provinces, they can sell for VND51,000-52,000 per kilogram.

At a recent press conference, Tong Xuan Chinh of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) admitted that pork prices are low, but stressed that this is common in the world, not only in Vietnam.

In China, for example, live pork price is $2.1 per kilogram. It is similar for Thailand and the Philippines.

Chinh said the purchasing power is weak, while production capacity is high. By the end of March, the herd of pigs increased by 6.2 percent, while live pork output reached 1.192 million tons, up 7.5 percent year on year.

Tam An