October 18, 2012

In the first nine months of 2012, Vietnam spent over US$1.736 billion on importing animal feed and raw materials, rising by 2.7% on-year.

In September, the country bought animal feed and raw materials for its production worth US$259.68 million, soaring by 36.5% from August, the Vietnam Customs said.

China became the largest supplier of animal feed materials for Vietnam in January-September with export revenues of US$466 million, up 27% on-year while India's animal feed exports to Vietnam dropped by 46% to US$208 million during the period.

Vietnamese imports of animal feed materials from the US rose by 9.1% to US$193 million while those from Brazil decreased by 14.5% to US$131 million between January and September, the agency said.

Vietnam's animal husbandry consumes about 24 million tonnes of animal feed, of which around 10 million tons are industrially produced. However, the country has to import a huge volume of raw materials for animal production.

Due to a heavy reliance on import of materials, price of animal feed in Vietnam is 20% higher than that in other countries in the Southeast Asian region, said the Vietnam Animal Feed Association.

Last year, Vietnam imported US$2.33 billion of raw materials to make animal feed, increasing by 7.2% from 2010.