Customers buy pork at a supermarket in HCM City. Businesses say that the supply of pork and other fresh food products will be sufficient for the Tết holiday. — VNS Photo

HCM CITY — Supplies of poultry and pork products are expected to be sufficient in HCM City during the upcoming Lunar New Year (Tết) holiday, which falls on January 25.

At a recent meeting with the city’s market stabilisation task force led by Nguyễn Huỳnh Trang, deputy director of the municipal Department of Industry and Trade, poultry producers and distributors said they had prepared more than enough chicken and duck meat products at stable prices for Tết.

Phạm Thị Ngọc Hà, director of San Hà Co., Ltd, said her company had prepared 5,000 tonnes of poultry meat a month to serve customers on the country’s biggest holiday.

Poultry meat and egg suppliers Ba Huân and Vĩnh Thành Đạt plan to increase supply by 20 - 30 per cent for the holiday season.

If there is a surge in demand, pushing up prices, enterprises will be capable of supplying a large volume of poultry meat and eggs to stabilise the market, they said.

Businesses said that the supply will be sufficient both in fresh and imported frozen meat, but the price may inch up.

Nguyễn Đăng Phú, deputy general director of Vissan, said “There is no shortage of pork." 

Vissan has signed contracts with other pig suppliers such as CP, Everest, CJ, Japfa and pig breeding farms to ensure supply.  

At the same time, Vissan also signed a commitment contract with major distributors to ensure supply from December 1 to January 24.

Võ Văn Thiệu, director of Sài Gòn Livestock Breeding and Food Processing Company (Sagrifood), said the company would supply 1,000 tonnes of fresh pork, 280 tonnes of chicken meat, and 140 tonnes of processed meat during Tết, doubling the volume that the company had registered under the city’s market stabilisation programme.

Nguyễn Anh Đức, permanent deputy general director of Saigon Co.op, said that Saigon Co.op had signed an agreement with pork suppliers a long time ago to buy 3,500 to 4,500 tonnes of pork at good prices to sell at its Co.opmart, Co.opXtra and Co.opFood systems nationwide from now to Tết and after Tết. The pork will be sold under the city’s price stabilisation programme.

In addition, Co.opmart, Co.opXtra and Co.opFood are also selling chilled pork products using European production technologies and herb-fed pork to offer customers more choice, he said.

Saigon Co.op has also prepared a large volume of chicken and duck meat, and fishery and aquaculture products to serve customers during the peak shopping season.

Live pig prices up

Vũ Văn Tư, director of Trường Giang Phát One Member Co., Ltd in Đồng Nai Province’s Biên Hòa City, said the price of live pigs has fluctuated strongly, with prices in the afternoon higher than in the morning.

He attributed the situation to a lower supply due to the impact of African swine fever and a higher demand for pork since businesses have sped up production of pork-based products for Tết.

But while large pig breeding companies offered live pig price at VNĐ79,000 (US$3.4) per kilo, in some areas traders had to pay up to VNĐ90,000 ($3.88) to buy pig from farmers, he said.

According to enterprises, large pig breeding farms are offering good prices to large customers who regularly buy their pigs at a large quantity, while small breeding farms and household farmers expect that pig prices will increase in the near Tết, so they have reduced selling the pigs, pushing up prices. 

Tứ said after the peak production for Tết ends, the price gap between large breeding companies and the market price will shrink because such a high price will affect consumption demand.

Thiệu from Sagrifood said that the current high price of live pigs was only temporary since the price would affect consumption and live pig prices would fall soon.

Representatives of some wholesales markets in the city said the volume of pork in the market has fallen significantly, while the volume of fresh fishery and aquaculture products have increased compared to last month. — VNS