VietNamNet Bridge - The pork price has bounced back, increasing by VND48,000-50,000 per kilogram. It  dropped so much one year ago that the country had to launch a ‘pork rescue campaign’.


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The pork price has bounced back



According to Nguyen Ngoc An, general director of Vissan, the price of live pork has been increasing rapidly, almost twice as much over days ago. This is attributed to the short supply.

As the pork price plunged a year ago, many farmers gave up, leading to the decrease in pig output. It will take one year to resume farming, which means that the pork price will continue rising.

Chair of the Vietnam Livestock Association Nguyen Dang Vang confirmed the pork price is on the rise, but farmers cannot benefit because they don’t have pigs to sell. Only the enterprises breeding pigs on an industrial scale can make a profit. 

The industrial farming cost is about VND30,000 per kilogram, while the live pork selling price is VND48,000-50,000 per kilogram.

An believes that besides the short supply, the pork price is also influenced by the actions of the breeders who hold a large market share. In theory, the breeders with market share of 30 percent and higher can affect the market price.

They launch a limited amounts of goods into the market, which increases the price. Their actions immediately have influence on small breeders who will restrict their supply because they know the price will be increasing.

The pork price has bounced back, increasing by VND48,000-50,000 per kilogram. It  dropped so much one year ago that the country had to launch a ‘pork rescue campaign’.

Nguyen Kim Doan, deputy chair of the Dong Nai Livestock Association, predicted that the live pork price may keep rising because many farmers have bargained their pigs away. Meanwhile, the breeder price has soared to VND800,000, so farmers find it difficult to resume farming.

Doan said the pork price increase only benefits foreign invested enterprises which control the supply of breeders.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, it is difficult to predict if the current ‘price fever’ will last long. If the price continues rising, more pork will be imported to Vietnam. If farmers resume farming, they will only have pigs to sell after four or five months. By that time, the market will have seen big changes.

According to An, one cannot store pigs for speculation, because pigs have to eat every day and their commercial value will decrease when they get bigger. Therefore, the price can be affected for the short term only.

Foreign invested enterprises are dominant in the market because they follow professional farming methods, build closed value chains, and have processing and distribution networks.


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Thanh Mai