In its report reviewing the livestock industry development strategy by 2020, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) said the industry has been growing fast in the last 10 years, producing 5.4 million tons of meat a year.

In 2008-2018, the total meat output of different kinds increased by 1.5 times from 3.6 million tons to 5.4 million, the egg output by 2.3 times from 5 billion to 11.6 billion eggs, fresh milk by 3.6 times from 262,000 tons to 936,700 tons, and animal feed by 2.4 times from 8.5 million to 20.2 million tons.

Some products have been exported, such as not fully grown and suckling pork, poultry meat, salted eggs, honey, salangane nests, silk, milk, and dairy products.

MARD Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien said Vietnam has cemented high positions in the world in some segments. It ranks fifth in number of pigs raised and sixth in output. It ranks second in number of water fowls. And it ranks first in Southeast Asia in milk cow productivity and animal feed output.

Together with cultivation, animal husbandry has created livelihoods for 8.6 million households, thus improving the face of rural areas. More and more businesses and economic sectors have invested in livestock projects, developing closed, farm-to-table farming chains.

Problems

MARD Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong said, however, that problems in the livestock industry still exist.

The industry generates 100 million tons of waste each year which still cannot be recycled to bring money, while it is polluting the environment.

The livestock industry has been growing fast, but the product structure is unreasonable with pork accounting for 70 percent of the food basket.

He thinks the structure was reasonable in the past, but not now. The average income of Vietnamese has increased from $400 per head per annum to $3,000 and demands have changed a lot.

The three most important sectors in the livestock industry are production, processing and consumption. Vietnam is good at production, but moderate at processing.

Animals are mostly slaughtered at small-scale, privately run establishments, while there are very few modern slaughterhouses.

Regarding consumption, meat is mostly sold at rural markets. Periodically, pork prices drop dramatically and consumers are called to buy pork to ‘rescue’ pork products.

Agricultural exports bring export turnover of $40 billion a year, but only a modest amount of suckling pork, salted eggs and honey is exported. 

Bao Han

Pork price high, livestock companies pocket high profits

The pork production cost is just VND50,000 per kilogram for closed husbandry chains, while the live pork price in the market is VND80,000.

Sky-high livestock prices may breach competition law

Although many livestock companies could face an inspection to ensure they follow through on commitments to cut their prices, the market outlook still looks dreary in spite of the government’s call to stabilise the selling cost of live pigs.