October 8, 2008

Vietnam's Ministry of Finance will increase import tariffs on meat and poultry products by up to three times.

The new rate for fresh and frozen chicken will be 40 percent compared to the current rate of 15 percent. Tariffs for chicken legs, wings and liver will also be set to 20 percent, up from 5 percent, and poultry and pig feed rates will be increased to 8 percent from 5 percent.

Rates for beef and pork will increase 2 percent to 27 percent and 25 percent, respectively.

Frozen beef byproducts, pork, lamb, mutton, goat and horsemeat will also increase from 10 percent to 13 percent.

The new tariffs will be applied to imported products submitted to customs offices, starting from next week.

For sometime, Vietnamese livestock producers and meat distributors have suffered due to a combination of lower-than-required import tariffs and high volumes of imported meat.

Nguyen Xuan Duong, deputy head of the Agricultural Ministry's breeding department, said it would focus on regulating imports and exports of meat to curb inflation and encourage the development of the domestic breeding industry.

Duong added that the restriction of poultry and beef imports would help protect the domestic breeding industry, but breeders must improve production processes and cut costs.