Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phùng Đức Tiến

The price of pork is expected to increase in the last months of 2019 and before Tết (Lunar New Year) in 2020 because African swine fever has caused the supply of pork to drop.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phùng Đức Tiến talks to local media about this issue.

How is the domestic pork price forecast to increase?

In the domestic market, there are forecasts that pig prices will increase to high levels. However, over the past month, the price was still around VNĐ48,000-50,000 per kilo of live hog. This shows that supply still meets demand.

There is no reason to forecast a lack of meat for the Tết festival in 2020. About 93 per cent of pigs were unaffected by African swine fever.

The price of pork in the Chinese market is rising – up to VNĐ100,000 per kilo of live hog in some localities – due to a shortage of pork. The crisis of supply means some provinces and cities have opened frozen pork storage, such as Jinan City, Hainan Province, Guangdong Province and Guangzhou City, enhancing pork supply for the local market.

However, China has recently reduced its imports of pork through border gates, and at the same time, it has increased the traceability and food safety of imported foods under commercial contracts.

Those issues in neighbouring markets do not affect the pork price in the Vietnamese market.

What will the ministry do to ensure enough pork and reduce the pressure on pork prices towards CPI?

Facing African swine fever, the Government and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development have directed the restructuring of the livestock sector.

As a result, the sector had a growth of about 3 per cent in cattle production in the first eight months of this year.

Poultry production gained a growth rate of about 10 per cent. It is expected to increase from 11-13 per cent from now to the end of the year, with 409 million units of poultry and 11.6 billion eggs. Those products will partly offset the shortage of pork.

Meanwhile, production of aquaculture in the first eight months rose by 5.7 per cent and is expected to reach a growth rate of 8 per cent for this year, ensuring both export and production growth targets.

What will the ministry do to re-breed pigs in localities after African swine fever, especially regarding bio-safety breeding solutions?

The ministry has asked localities to implement synchronous measures on controlling African swine fever for stability in production and restructuring the livestock industry to diversify products.

Pig breeding maintains a large proportion in the meat structure because of the high demand for the daily meals of Vietnamese people. Therefore, if there is no solution for re-production, the risk of pork shortage is very high, especially towards year end and next year.

In fact, there are many companies applying bio-safety breeding measures for their production of pig, poultry and cattle, such as the pig breeding of Quế Lâm Group, Amavet Group and the Southern Breeding Sub-Institute.

In the process of re-development of pig herds, the ministry has guided the transportation of pig varieties and has also provided support for pig breeding facilities to ensure bio-safety in those facilities. Therefore, pig breeding facilities have basically maintained their production despite African swine fever. This ensures enough quality pig varieties to meet production needs.

With the strong development of the bio-safety pig breeding measure in provinces and cities nationwide and the development of breeding cattle, poultry and fishery products, the domestic market is expected to have enough meat for the upcoming Tết holiday.

According to the Livestock Department, in 2016, there were 2,147 bio-safety pig farms, accounting for 18.3 per cent of total pig farms nationwide. This figure rose by 15.6 per cent in 2017 to nearly 2,500 farms, accounting for 24.4 per cent of the total pig farms. VNS