January 22, 2008

Vietnam projects 10-percent rise in corn imports by 2010

Vietnam expects corn imports for feed production to increase by 10 percent to 740,000 tonnes by 2010 from 672,000 tonnes projected this year.

The country needs 4.47 million tonnes of corn for its livestock in 2008 with 3.8 million tonnes coming from domestic supply, according to the Agriculture Ministry's Husbandry Department.

The corn import volume is seen to rise gradually as domestic production cannot satisfy the husbandry sector's needs.

The Agriculture Ministry forecasts corn imports to increase to 912,000 tonnes by 2015 and above 1 million tonnes by 2020.

The department also projects Vietnam's soymeal imports to rise by nearly 3 million tonnes in 2020 from 1.8 million tonnes expected this year, the newspaper said.

Last year, the country produced 4.11 million tonnes of corn, 8.2 percent more than in 2006, after northern farmers expanded the growing area by 4.5 percent to 630,000 hectares.

Vietnam aims to boost feed output by 17 percent this year to 9.1 million tonnes to meet the livestock sector's growth target of 8 percent to 9 percent.

Feed production grew an average 16.7 percent per year in the 2000-2006 period, reaching 6.6 million tonnes in 2006.