March 4, 2013

Vietnam's pork, beef imports from US on high demand

Partly due to Vietnam's younger generation with no memory of war with the US, the country's demand for US pork and beef has soared, a demand for better protein and an almost complete lack of a domestic livestock market.

"The average age in Vietnam is 27, and half the population was not even born at the time the Vietnam War ended," Iowa Farm Bureau Federation President Craig Hill said on a conference call from the Philippines.

The Iowa trade delegation led by Kim Reynolds visited Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), and delegation members said they felt completely comfortable.

Hill noted a key statistic: 79% of Vietnam's population owns refrigerators, which makes consumer sales of beef and pork more widespread.

Vietnam now stands as the fifth-largest customer of US beef, purchasing more in 2012 than the entire EU and almost as much as Russia. At the same time, Vietnam has virtually no grain production for feed and very little land on which to raise livestock.

"Most of the hogs that are raised in Vietnam come from backyard, family operations," Hill said. "At the same time, there is a huge demand for more beef and pork, better protein of all kinds."

Russia and China have made an issue over the hog feed additive ractopamine, but Vietnam is agreeable to imports of ractopamine-fed hogs. Reynolds said Iowans are counting on more sales of meat products to Asia, a task made somewhat easier by Asian tastes that might seem unusual to Americans.

"We have learned on this trip that hog ears from the Swift plant at Marshalltown are a big sales item in Asia," Hill said. "Eardrums are considered a delicacy."