The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was asked to closely monitor African swine fever and bird flu, and ensure early detection for preventing the two epidemics from spreading on a large scale.
Vietnam has successfully produced a vaccine against African swine fever (ASF), said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien on June 1.
From the beginning of 2022 until now, more outbreaks of dangerous diseases in livestock and poultry have been reported in the Central Province of Quang Ngai.
As of June 30, Vietnam will halt the import of live pigs from Thailand into Vietnam because the veterinary authority has recently discovered that a batch of nearly 1,000 pigs imported from this country was infected with African swine fever (ASF).
Pork supply remains plentiful in markets, and the demand for pork has decreased. Pig farmers have been repopulating pig herds to serve the needs of the people during the festive season. There is, obviously, no shortage of pork, but the prices of pork have increased sharply.
Vietnamese government have issued a decision to support pig farmers in regions affected by the African swine fever (ASF) as well as give money for ASF prevention in 2020.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has founded a group to inspect the pork market which saw prices at high levels since the end of 2019 despite the Government’s effort to increase supply to make up for the drops caused by African swine fever.
The Department of Statistics of Dong Nai Province informed that by the end of June this year, the total pig herd of the province merely reached 2.03 million pigs, down 18 percent compared to that before the African swine fever epidemic.
Vietnam is targeting more than 90 percent of its communes and wards being free of African swine fever (ASF) by 2022 and the country being free of the disease by 2025.
Visiting farms raising breeding pigs for the recovery of pig farming in My Duc Commune in An Lao District in Hai Phong City on July 7, Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that repopulation is the only sustainable solution to create food supply and in the fourth quarter, there will be 11 million piglets for the market.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), in the afternoon of June 17, the first 500 live pigs imported from Thailand entered Vietnam through Lao Bao Border Gate in the Central province of Quang Tri.
For months, pork has become a hot spot due to its high prices. To ensure supply and demand, and stabilize the price, on May 27, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) gave nods to imports of live pigs to meet the demand for fresh pork of Vietnamese people.
Cities and provinces in the Mekong Delta are striving to repopulate pig herds after the African swine fever epidemic but with the current situation, supply cannot meet the demand, leading to high prices of piglets and pigs.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the amount of imported pork has increased heavily but the prices of pork in the market are still hovering at high levels.
Because African swine fever is possibly recurring in several areas leading to shortage of hog, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development called on farmers and cooperatives to restore pig herds.
Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien and the inspection delegation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on May 4 inspected the situation of repopulation of pig herd, control on pork prices, and the prevention of diseases on animals in Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of An Giang Province on April 23 said that the price of pigs in the market hovered around VND90,000-VND93,000 per kilogram, a high price level, but most pig-farming households did not have many pigs left to sell as the African swine fever forced thousands of households to destroy hundreds of pigs, leading to a sharp decline in the number of pig herds.
Assuming that the current prices of pork remain at high levels because farms and farming households are still selling pigs at VND73,000-VND78,000 per kilogram although 15 livestock enterprises have reduced their prices to VND70,000 per kilogram, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on April 8 issued a dispatch, calling for them to join hands in reducing pork prices.
The office of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on March 26 informed that nearly 1,500 tons of pork of the Russian corporation Miratorg has arrived at Cat Lai, Phuoc Long, and Hai Phong ports.
In comparison to the previous month, the price of material pangasius fish in many provinces in the Mekong Delta has dropped by VND200-VND500 further and is at a fairly low level.
