May 8, 2012

Vietnam's January-April animal feed imports down 19.3%

In the first four months of this year, Vietnam spent US$618 million on importing animal feed, down 19.3% from the same period last year, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Pham Duc Binh, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Animal Feed Association, attributed the lower import value to decreasing prices of imported fodder and more abundant supply of materials such as cereal grains, potatoes, wheat and winter-spring rice on the local market.

The great dependence on raw material imports for fodder has made final product prices in Vietnam 10-15% higher than in Thailand and China, Binh added.

Vietnam has to import 35% in volume and 45% in value out of the total demand of the local market, said Le Ba Lich, chairman of the association.

Lich attributed the dependence on imported materials to the fact that Vietnam still lacks a master plan on land for material plantations.

He added that cassava is essential in feed processing and that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should map out specific plans for cassava plantations so as to meet local market demand as well as support a decrease in import taxes.

Last year, Vietnam imported 8.9 million tonnes of raw materials for feed worth US$3.7 billion.