March 25, 2004

 

 

Vietnam Announce Poultry Industry Development Plan

 

The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has drafted a plan to restore poultry numbers after the bird flu outbreak and to develop the sector to increase production value by 2010, according to Hoang Kim Giao, a MARD senior official.

 

The plan aims to quickly recover poultry numbers, striving to raise an additional 165-180 million chickens and 60-65 million ducks and geese each year in the 2004-05 period to have total meat output of 330,000-360,000 tons and 4.3-4.7 billion eggs by that time.

 

In the following 2006-10 period, the poultry sector's production value will increase by 7% annually, Giao said.

 

Total poultry heads will be 340-350 million, of which 120 million are industrial chickens and 120 million chickens raised by individual farmers with 240,000 tons and 156,000 tons of meat, respectively, and 90-95 million ducks and geese and 167,000 tons of meat and 6.7 billion eggs in 2010.

 

The plan also seeks to restructure 12 State run poultry breeding farms nationwide.

 

The MARD Agricultural Department will by 2005 relocate several environmentally polluted and unsafe epidemic breeding farms, namely Vigova, Lien Ninh Farm, Thuy Phuong Duck Farm and a part of two Dai Xuyen Duck Research Center and Binh Thang Poultry Center.

 

According to the plan, localities must raise poultry in concentrated areas, focusing on duck raising in the Mekong and Red River Deltas, coastal northern and southern central regions, while raising chickens in the south east, central highlands, Red River Delta, central and mountainous regions.

 

The draft plan also targets to meet 80% of the country's total high-energy animal feed demand by 2010, 50% of high protein and 40-50% of supplemental and additive feeds. "The ministry will restructure the current industrial animal feed producers, concentrating in Red River Delta and southern east region and by 2006, all processors must have laboratories to test feed quality," Giao said.

 

The Vietnamese Government will invest further to upgrade five veterinary laboratories nationwide to study, produce and test vaccinations, especially chicken flu types, on poultry. The State budget will subsidize 100% of the cost of virus testing for all breeding farms.

 

The ministry will seek to issue standards and measures for poultry slaughtering in centralized areas.

 

The total poultry heads after the avian flu outbreak in Vietnam are estimated at 216 million, of which around 850,000 are industrial white chickens, 600,000 are colored chickens and 450,000 are ducks and geese.

 

The bird flu epidemic has caused immense damage to Vietnam, with more than 38 million poultry, or 15.1% of the country's flock, slaughtered. The government has spent hundreds of billions of VND on destroying infected poultry and supporting farmers in the fight against the epidemic.