September 15, 2010

 

Vietnam corn imports may double in 2011

 

 

After a sharp decline this year, Vietnam's corn imports may rise by almost 50% in 2011 to a record 1.5 million tonnes amid strong growth in the poultry and animal feed sectors, a senior industry executive said Tuesday.

 

Vietnam's compound feed production is growing by almost 16% annually and is likely to be around 14.5 million tonnes in 2010, said Adel Yusupov, regional director for Southeast Asia at the US Grains Council.

 

Corn, along with wheat, rice bran, tapioca and soymeal is an important ingredient in compound animal feed for livestock, poultry, hogs and aquaculture. This provides a strong export opportunity to exporting countries such as the US, Argentina and India.

 

Yusupov said Vietnam's corn imports this year are likely to be around a moderate 1.0 million tonnes, down from last year's exceptionally high level, but up from a paltry 100,000 tonnes, a decade ago. Vietnam produces around 4.5 million tonnes corn annually but that is insufficient to meet domestic demand which has been growing exponentially, he noted.
 

Vietnam imported a record 1.48 million tonnes corn last year, up from 600,000 tonnes in 2008 but that was an exceptional year when high local prices prompted consumers to look overseas to meet their requirements and the surge in tapioca exports to China reduced its availability for domestic feed use.

 

Yusupov said that by next year, Vietnam's corn imports are likely to hit 1.5 million tonnes on a sustainable basis. The demand is mainly being driven by the hog and poultry sectors.

 

He said Vietnam's compound feed industry is among the fastest growing in Southeast Asia and is reflective of the booming demand for animal feed in the region as a whole.

 

Southeast Asia is the fourth-largest animal feed producer in the world at 46 million tonnes, after the US, China and Brazil. "In the next few years, driven by growth in countries such as Indonesia and Vietnam, the Southeast Asian region may overtake Brazil in animal feed production," said Yusupov. Brazil produces around 52 million tonnes animal feed a year.

 

He said even Thailand, a major corn producer, has been importing the commodity in large volumes in recent years from neighbouring Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. Thailand imported around 350,000 tonnes of corn last year.

 

There is a large potential for corn imports in Indonesia as the country is seeing a strong growth in animal feed production, currently estimated around 9.2 million tonnes. After a few years, Indonesia may produce 45-50 million tonnes of animal feed, which is the equivalent to the combined current output of whole Southeast Asia, he said. At present, per capita annual poultry consumption in Indonesia is 4.0 kilogrammes while in cosmopolitan Jakarta it is 27 kilogrammes.

 

Indonesia's growth potential for compound feed in general and corn in particular can be gauged by the fact that in neighbouring Malaysia, per capita annual poultry consumption is between 35 kilogrammes and 37 kilogrammes.