Vietnam has spent US$1.157 billion on the imports of animal feed and animal feed materials in the first six months of 2010, said the General Statistics Office.

The country has imported US$220 million worth of the products in June, up from US$167 million a month earlier. The US took the lead in the Jan-May period among 25 suppliers of animal feeds to Vietnam, with total revenues of US$242.68 million, up 150% on-year. India ranked second with US$192.79 million, but representing on-year decrease of 17.5%.

On the other hand, for Argentine exports, Vietnam's the third largest supplier, total revenues rose 136% to US$187.82 million. Other large exporters included China, Thailand and UAE, which exported US$44.46 million, US$26.54 million and US$16.5 million, respectively.

Currently, as many as 90% of Vietnam animal feed materials are imports, showing that domestic animal feed prices are driven by the world prices, said local analysts.

Animal feed prices surged by 15% in Vietnam in H1 as a result of 10% price hike in imported materials, the analysts said, predicting that the prices will continue to jump for the rest of the year.

Earlier, the USDA forecast that Vietnam will surpass Thailand and Indonesia to become the second biggest importer of dry soy in the world with import volume amounting to 2.7 million tonnes this year.

The volume will be some 130,000 tonnes higher than that of last year, and account for 5% of the world's total soy imports.