August 4, 2011

Vietnam's livestock industry to strengthen production

Vietnam's animal husbandry industry will strengthen production during the second half of the year so as to ensure domestic meat prices will be at reasonable prices, according to an official.

Nguyen Thanh Son, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Animal Husbandry Department, said at a meeting in Ho Chi Minh City August 2 that demand for meat of all kinds in the second half of the year is estimated at 1.7 million tonnes-1.8 million tonnes, an increase of 4%-4.5% over the same period last year.

Prices of livestock and poultry products were forecast to remain high in the second half but would be 10%-15% lower than the first half. Pork prices would slightly fall at the end of this month, Son said.

Meat prices increased strongly in the first half of the year, with that of pork increasing the most by 54%-71% from the end of last year, Son said.

He attributed the higher prices to disease outbreaks, increased production costs and a poor distribution system.

The blue ear pig disease outbreak last year and earlier this year, for instance, reduced the number of pigs by 10%-30% over the same period last year, leading to a supply shortage in the first half, especially in June and July.

Several problems continued to plague the distribution system, particularly the large number of middle traders, causing a big difference between buying prices at pigsties and selling price to customers, he said.

The country produced 1.68 million tones of meat in the first half, basically meeting the domestic demand.