Vietnam steps up measures against imported poultry influx

Flooding of imported poultry products in the Vietnamese market has forced the domestic livestock sector to take stronger measures to help domestic breeders raise competitiveness, according to Vietnam's Deputy Minister of Agriculture Vu Van Tam.

 

Tam said that the livestock sector was dealing with many difficulties as outbreaks of blue ear disease in pigs and food and mouth disease in cattle have occurred in some localities. Increased price of feed and severe competitiveness from the imported products is also challenging the sector.

 

The breeders had to sell their products at a loss while consumers have to buy these products at a higher price, Tam added.

 

Although the state has recently increased import tax, imported products still flood the market, said Tam.

 

Poultry breeding in medium and large farms is slowly developing in Vietnam. There are about 3,000 poultry farms in the country, accounting for 16 percent of total farms. Each farm has from 5,000 to 10,000 chickens and ducks. The south-eastern area leads in poultry breeding with many farms having 50,000 to 100,000 chicken and ducks.

 

Deputy Director of Livestock Breeding Department Nguyen Thanh Son said there were some new models of poultry breeding including cooperatives, associations and clubs in which many breeders have cooperated with each other to buy breeding poultry, feed and set up funding for loans.

 

Son said such models have contributed in boosting the effectiveness of breeding as farmers jointly participate in advertising and building trademarks.

 

Besides strategies and policies for poultry breeding development issued by the government and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, many localities have carried out land planning for concentrated breeding farms.

 

The central province of Binh Dinh is an example as it has marked off land for 10 concentrated breeding areas. Ha Tay province, which recently merged into Hanoi, has funded building infrastructure for concentrated breeding areas.

 

It is reported that the price of feed has increased by over 40 percent in 2007 but poultry product prices have gradually reduced, causing difficulties for the breeders. The price of one-day old breeding chickens has reduced by VND7,000 each while the price of processed chicken has declined by VND8,000 per kilogramme.

 

Tam said the poultry farming sector should invest in producing enough breeding poultry and assign provincial breeding poultry centres to choose and improve the capacity of some locals breeding chickens and ducks.

 

The ministry has issued some measures to develop the sector, including strengthening inspection over poultry breeding conditions, monitoring closely for signs of bird flu and observing the consumption of poultry products in the market.

 

According to the Department of Livestock Breeding, there are about 247.3 million ducks and chicken nationwide this year, an increase of nearly 10 per cent over last year.

 

The country has this year imported 105 tonnes of chicken products and 1.2 million breeding ducks and chickens, more than twice the number in 2007.

 

US$1 = VND17,005 (Dec 15)