May 24, 2011

Vietnam ministry urges to cut meat imports

The Animal Husbandry Department under Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is urging to reduce meat imports, in order to prevent local livestock farms from going bust.

The reduction will help stabilise local meat prices and ensure good incomes for farmers, said the head of department Hoang Kim Giao.

Demand for pork in summer is projected to decrease, so if supply stays at the current level, pork prices will slump, he said, adding that a price decline would hurt the livestock farming industry.

Giao said that news reporting a domestic pork undersupply sending prices snowballing rapidly is untrue. "I do affirm that there is no short supply. Transport of domestic pork has been disrupted as livestock disease outbreaks have been detected in some province," he said.

He said his department was considering giving livestock farmers good breeders and vet drugs, and helping them clean up their farms so as to improve the quality of their products, instead of providing loan interest support.

Earlier, the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Import-Export Department said it may allow local firms to increase imports of meat to meet domestic demand.

The ministry estimated that the country needs to import 100,000 tonnes of different kinds of meat to supply for domestic demand of about 2.9 million tonnes this year.

Many Vietnamese farmers have cut their raising of animals due to high production costs and occurrences of animal disease outbreaks. Animal meat is one of 97 goods discouraged for importing by the government.