July 30, 2009

Animal feed prices in Vietnam have recently seen a sharp increase despite a large volume of feed in stock, according to state media reports on Wednesday (July 29).

 

Over the past one month, animal feed prices have risen three times by 10 percent to 19 percent over June to VND7 million to VND8 million per tonne.

 

Domestic feed traders said they could not cut prices yet as they only stopped importing expensive raw materials in May.

 

Pham Quang Dieu, director of the Information Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agroinfo) said the volume of raw materials harvested in-country has recently increased, so traders have temporarily stopped importing raw materials.

 

According to reports, another reason why raw material imports are down is that most banks have refused to lend traders US dollars.

 

Vietnam import 70 percent of raw animal feed for processing and its local cattle and poultry flock.

 

The country is predicted to import around 2.55 million tonnes of powdered soy in the 2008-09 crop, up from 2.4 million tonnes in 2007-08 crop; 80,000 tonnes of soy cakes, up from 75,000 tonnes; and 120,000 tonnes of soy, up from 110,000 tonnes on year.

 

US$1 = VND17,105 (Jul 30)