August 31, 2020

Vietnam government forecasts pork supply to rise from end of Q3

Efficient swine reproduction and increasing imports of frozen pork and live pigs have led to a fall in live hog prices, according to Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), Vietnam News Agency reported.

The ministry forecasts that pork supply will rise from the end of the third quarter, leading to stability in domestic pork prices.

Live hog prices gradually declined over the past week. A report by eFeedLink's SpoutINFO quoted Nguyen Kim Doan, vice chairman of the Dong Nai Livestock Association as saying that prices fell by the range of 1,000-4,000 VND/kg (~0.043-0.17 US$/kg) nationwide: https://spoutinfo.com/market-forecast-detail/30/33/277/2185

According to MARD, current production cost is VND71,000 per kilogram of live hog if breeders buy piglets for production and VND50,000 per kilogram for vertical integration from piglet to finisher production.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said the ministry and agencies will continue to work to prevent cases of COVID-19 and African swine fever (ASF), and breed swine to ensure sufficient pork supply from the end of the third quarter.

By the end of July, swine for slaughter reached 4.87 million head, up 17% year-on-year. The local market expects production of 5.17 million head by the end of the third quarter and 5.36 million in the fourth quarter, up 68% compared to the beginning of 2020.

In addition, Vietnam has licensed companies from 24 countries to export pork products.

In the first seven months of this year, Vietnam imported more than 93,248 tonnes of pork, mainly from Canada, Germany, Poland, Brazil, the United States, Spain and Russia, a spike of 223% compared to the same period in 2019.

The ministry had also licensed imports of live swine from Thailand to Vietnam for slaughter from June 12.

Tien also said Vietnam did not set a quota for imports of live swine and pork while the Department of Animal Health always created favourable conditions for customs clearance of pork imports. However, importing pork had been challenging as ASF had cut global swine output by 12%.