Live cow imports bring fresh Aussie beef to Vietnam
Live cow imports bring fresh Aussie beef to Vietnam
A fan of the Australian beef sold at Ho Chi Minh City’s supermarkets, Nguyen Hoai Trang wonders how the imported meat can be as fresh as locally slaughtered beef.
What Trang and many local consumers do not know is that the Aussie beef available at supermarkets citywide is in fact the product of live cows that have been imported to Vietnam from Australia.
Beef importers and distributors say Australian beef meets all safety and hygiene standards, thus winning the trust of consumers.
“I prefer the Australian beef because it tastes softer and sweeter, and the prices are not higher than local beef,” said Trang, a white-collar worker based in District 3 who has switched to the foreign beef over the last two months.
Rather than buying imported frozen Australian beef, Vietnamese consumers can now enjoy fresh meat from live animals brought into the country for slaughtering
Vietnam has imported 32,500 live cows from Australia since January, according to figures from a veterinary agency.
An import batch of 1,500 such animals arrived at Go Dau Port in Dong Nai on Tuesday.
Upon passing all customs clearances, the cows, 2 meters in height and weighing 800kg each, will be transported to the livestock farm of Trung Dong Co Ltd. There, they will undergo quarantine checks and will be slaughtered a fortnight later.
Trung Dong Co director Truong Thi Dong said this is the company’s 10th import batch of Australian beef over the last year.
The beef slaughtered from these cows will be distributed to large distribution chains like Big C, Co.op Mart, and Lotte, as well as several hotels, restaurants, and butchers,” she said.
Winning market dominance
Insiders say importing and selling beef from Australia yields greater profits than from Cambodia, Laos, or Thailand, the country’s traditional sources of beef.
But it is not easy to join this business, they add.
In order to win a contract to import cows from their Aussie partners, the Vietnamese company has to establish a farm and slaughtering house that meet Australian standards.
“The partners also request that the slaughter process follow humanity standards, which means you must make an effort to prevent the animals from becoming stressed or scared en route from the farm to the slaughtering house,” explained Van Duc Muoi, CEO of Vissan.
The Australian experts will supervise all processes from the Vietnamese partners, and will terminate contracts if any violations occur, he added.
Dong of Trung Dong Co said it costs her some US$1.5 million to import 1,500 live cows, and the expense to set up the standardized facilities is double that sum.
However, the huge investment pays off as profits from selling Australian beef are great.
As observed by Tuoi Tre, Australian beef appears to be the more attractive and popular product, chosen over SE Asian beef at many supermarkets and food stores in HCMC and Hanoi.
The cost of Australian beef is anywhere between VND120,000 and VND320,000 a kg, depending on parts.
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