HÀ NỘI — A hi-tech pig slaughterhouse meeting international standards and run by Biển Đông DHS, one of the biggest of its kind in the north, was inaugurated in Hải Nam Commune in the northern province of Nam Định on Sunday.

The 21-hectare pork processing complex uses an automated slaughtering line from South Korea with a designed capacity of 300 pigs per hour, according to Director of Biển Đông DHS Vũ Trọng Nghĩa. The complex has a total investment of about VNĐ300 billion (nearly US$12.8 million).

Pigs will be purchased from farms within supply chains in Nam Định and neighbouring provinces which must satisfy Vietnamese Good Agricultural Practices (VietGAP) based on four standards in production techniques, food safety, work environment, and origin traceability.

The plant’s main products include frozen pork and heat-treated pork products which will be distributed domestically and exported to foreign markets like Japan, South Korea, China and Malaysia.

Agriculture is Nam Định’s key industry with a strong development of animal husbandry, said Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Phạm Đình Nghi. Local farms raise a total of about 800,000 pigs which produce more than 150,000 tonnes of pork per year, accounting for over 81 per cent of the province’s meat output, he added.

The province houses around 300 large-scale animal farms and thousands of household farms, many of which have been verified to meet VietGAP standards and recognised as free of foot-and-mouth disease and African Swine Fever (ASF), Nghi said.

However, the province still lacks large-scale slaughterhouses, he noted, adding that the launch of the Biển Đông DHS pork processing plant marks a new milestone in the development of local agriculture.

Speaking at the launching event, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Trần Thanh Nam said to ensure sufficient input for the complex’s production, the company and the province must build disease-free zones for animal farming and develop safe and clean supply chains of pigs. He also urged the company to further advance its production technology to provide pork for not only the local market but also overseas ones. — VNS