Meat supply reaches 82% of domestic requirement
Meat supply reaches 82% of domestic requirement
The Cambodian meat industry has supplied more than 43 million livestock, or 245,653 tonnes of meat to the domestic market as of May, said Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon.Of the amount, beef accounted for 90,716 tonnes, equal to 824,688 head of cattle, he said.
Pork accounted for 105,870 tonnes, equivalent to 2,117,000 domestic pigs raised on 530 commercial farms and 1,030,494 family-raised pigs, while poultry accounted for 49,067 tonnes, equivalent to 40,889,000 head raised on 824 commerical farms and 27,763,479 head raised by small family-run businesses.
Cambodia Livestock Raisers Association director Srun Poav said with the additional momentum in the industry seen this year, the Kingdom will be able to supply 2.3 million live pigs domestically, accounting for 82 per cent of local necessity.
Cambodia needs between 100,000 and 150,000 chickens per day and between 7,000 and 8,000 pigs per day, he said.
“The demand for locally sourced meat has declined due to a lack of celebrations, including weddings and major festivals.
“Demand has slowed down, but we still have a shortage of pork and we need to import hundreds of pigs a day. We are encouraging the local farmers to produce enough to meet the market needs,” said Poav.
He said live pigs currently cost between 11,000 and 12,000 riel ($2.68 and $2.92) per kg, up from around 8,000 riel during the same period last year, while live chickens range between 5,500 and 7,500 riel per kg.
Ministry data shows that annual meat demand is 290,000 tonnes, of which 82,000 tonnes is beef, 153,000 tonnes is pork, 54,000 tonnes is poultry and 165 tonnes is other meat.
