June 23, 2006

Foot-and-mouth disease cripples Vietnamese pork exports

Foot-and-mouth disease in Vietnam has caused a sharp fall in its pork exports to Russia, Vietnam National Livestock Corp (Vinalivesco) said at a conference in HCMC on Tuesday (Jun 20).

Russia is one of the major markets for Vietnam's pork.

Vietnam National Livestock Corp. (Vinalivesco) said a contract to ship 1,000 tonnes of pork to Russia had been cancelled due to concerns arising from the spread of the disease.

Animal disease such as foot-and-mouth disease and bird flu has wrecked havoc with Vietnam's meat exports, Vinalivesco chairman Doan Xuan Truc said.

Before 2001, Vietnamese pork exports to Russia were to the tune of 7,000 to 15,000 tonnes a year but now the figure has shriveled to a mere 300 tonnes.

The country's overall pork exports rose to a 10-year high of 17,000 tonnes worth US$30 million in 2004 but the volume fell to 13,000 tonnes last year. Shipments in the first four months of 2006 only hit 2,700 tonnes, which put the targeted 14,000 tonnes out of reach.

Hong Kong is the only major export market for Vietnamese pork at the moment.

Action needs to be taken to curb the disease or the 2010 target of exporting 40,000 tonnes a year would be moot. 

Vietnam aims to bring about a rapid containment of foot-and-mouth disease and eradicate it eventually by 2010 and has allocated VND250bil (US$15.7mil) to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for that purpose.