Proposals submitted to PM to help pig farmers
Proposals submitted to PM to help pig farmers
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong has submitted a variety of proposed solutions to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc to help the struggling pig-farming industry recover.
The move comes after the price of live pigs kept falling, dropping to VND30,000 (US$1.32) per kilo in recent months. With no indication of an end to this downward spiral, pig breeders across the country are facing losses, the Infonet online newspaper reported.
Previously, the price per kilo of live pig was VND40,000 ($1.76). One of the reasons for the fall is said to be oversupply.
Le Dinh Thanh, deputy director of Hoang Hoa Livestock Investment and Development Company in the central province of Thanh Hoa, said due to the price drop the company cannot sell 2,000 pigs and is losing VND1.6-1.8 billion each month on animal feed, veterinary expenses, electricity and water bills.
If the market does not recover, the company will go bankrupt, Thanh said, urging provincial authorities to come up with solutions.
Mai The Sang, head of Livestock Division at the Agriculture and Rural Development Deparment of Thanh Hoa Province, said the price of live pigs dropped at the end of 2016 due to oversupply and unchanged demand on the domestic market, as well as difficulties in meat exports.
Nguyen Van Quang, a farmer in the northern province of Thai Binh, one of provinces with the largest pig production in Viet Nam, said the price of live pig was VND52,000 per kilo in April 2016 but dropped to VND34,000 after Tet (the Lunar New Year Festical) this year. Now the price is at VND24,000 per kilo, he said.
Under the situation, minister Cuong has proposed reducing the price of animal feed and veterinary medicine, and finding a stable market for domestic pork meat. He also suggested the Government direct banks and credit institutions to erase the debts of pig breeders, and people selling animal feed to help them recover their losses.
In the long term, the ministry will push for the use of modern technology to reduce production costs, improve productivity and seek potential export markets for domestic pork meat, he said.
The ministry has planned to instruct localities across the country to review, suspend and not issue licences for new animal-feed processing facilities as the current productivity is 31 million tonnes per year, far more than the target of 25 million tonnes by 2025.
The ministry also plans to reduce the livestock inventory from the current 4.2 million sows to three million by 2019.
Long-term solutions involve applying the supply chain model to maintain food hygiene and safety, control prices, and adjust the demand and supply of pork meat, he said.
Nguyen Van Duc, head of Livestock and Veterinary Sub-department in Thai Binh Province, said farmers should reduce the pig production cost by joining hands with each other to develop livestock chains from production to consumption for sustainable development of the industry.
