Businesses told to team up for food production
Businesses told to team up for food production
Businesses have been told to team up for greater production to meet the growing demand for food commodities.
Deputy Prime Minister in charge of economic affairs Somsavat Lengsavad gave the advice on Friday when he visited two livestock farms in Vientiane province.
He suggested the Sengdeuan Farm and Nitsavanh Farm enhance their food-production chain by operating in partnership with businesses producing animal feed and food processing factories.
Forming partnerships would mean the farm operators won’t need to invest and do all the food production processes themselves, so they can just focus on livestock raising and breeding.
The suggestion was made following emerging reports of some small and medium enterprises struggling after borrowing from banks but having been over burdened from investing in related production chains.
The Deputy Prime Minister warned the farm operators to observe financial discipline to avoid unexpected issues and make sure that their spending was in line with necessary targets.
Being told about insufficient technical staff and veterinary surgeons to help the farms, Mr Somsavat entrusted relevant authorities who accompanied him to train more vets and provide know-how to farm operators on animal husbandry.
He also instructed the state authorities to compile proper statistics on farming and its related production chain in Laos to ease the effort of balancing food supply and fulfilling demand in markets.
These statistics would facilitate the authorities to draw up plans to promote farm investment when more food was needed.
Nitsavanh Farm has operated since 2010. It currently has 4,000 pig breeders that enable the farm to breed about 100,000 piglets a year for selling to farmers in Vientiane and other provinces. The farm also raises cattle, fish along with cassava and palm plantations.
With its plan to increase pig breeders up to 10,000 in coming years, the farm is looking for more technical staff and veterinary surgeons to fulfil demand.
Sengdeuan Farm has operated its business since 2007. The farm currently has 1,590 pig breeders that enables the farm to breed about 2,200 piglets a month. It also produces and sells 800 big pigs a month to markets. The farm also raises thousands of poultry and fish, and hundreds of kilograms of the livestock are sold to markets every month.
vientiane times
