From after the Lunar New Year 2024 to mid-April 2024, traders purchased live pigs at breeders’ farms at prices ranging from VND58,000-VND60,000 per kg. Currently, the live hog farm gate price has reached VND70,000 per kg, up about VND10,000 per kg compared to the beginning of the year and is at the highest level in the past 5 years.
Noticeably, in the Northern region, live hog prices on June 13 increased by VND1,000-VND2,000 a kg and fluctuated in the range of VND68,000-VND71,000 a kg, depending on the region.
Specifically, traders in Thai Binh Province are currently proposing to purchase the animal at a price of up to VND71,000 per kg, the highest in the region. Meanwhile, traders in Lam Dong and Binh Thuan provinces are trading at a price of VND69,000 a kg, a significant increase compared to the beginning of the year.
A kg of live hog in the Central and Central Highlands regions is purchased from VND66,000 to VND69,000.
Similarly, in the southern provinces, live hog trading prices in the Mekong Delta provinces of Hau Giang and Long An were recorded at VND68,000 per kg and VND70,000 per kg respectively. In the remaining provinces and cities, especially Dong Nai where there are many large pig breeding businesses and farms, live hog prices have increased significantly, reaching VND70,000-VND72,000 a kg.
Chairman Nguyen Tri Cong of the Dong Nai Pig Raising Association assessed that the increase in live hog prices could last until August and September this year. Mr. Cong forecasted that the live hog market is unlikely to surge to VND78,000 a kg although the market is currently in short of supply because when the price reaches VND70,000-VND72,000 a kg, imported pork meat will significantly increase in the country.
In addition, from October to the Lunar New Year of 2025, more hogs will be supplied to the local market as breeders have re-herded. Currently, many pig breeding businesses are actively raising breeding pigs and sows to increase their herd.
According to the Department of Livestock Production, live hog farm gate prices are increasing sharply compared to the beginning of 2024. A kg of live hog price in January 2024 averagely reached VND53,000 while it increased by about VND3,000-VND4,000 a kg in February and prices continued to increase in March.
Comparing the average live pig price in the first quarter of the past 3 years, the average price in the first quarter of 2024 was about VND5,000 a kg higher, an increase of 9.7 percent compared to the first quarter of 2023. With the selling price in the middle of June, in general, pig farmers are making good profits.
The Department of Import and Export under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, forecast that in the coming time, pork prices may continue to remain high because pig farmers have not yet rebuilt their herds much, and businesses are also quite cautious when increasing the total pig herd due to concerns about disease outbreaks at the end of the year.
According to estimates, large-scale industrial pig breeding businesses are directly benefiting from the sharp increase in live hog prices. Chairman Nguyen Nhu So of the Board of Directors of Dabaco Group said that the group is planning to continue to replenish its breeding sows and breeding pigs. After importing 10,000 breeding pigs at the end of 2023, and at the end of April 2024, Dabaco Group continued to import another batch of breeding pigs, bringing the scale and productivity of the current pig herd to the highest level in 28 years of operation.
Chairman Truong Sy Ba of the Board of Directors of BaF Vietnam Agriculture Joint Stock Company, said that the company is setting a business plan for 2024 with revenue of more than VND5,500 billion, an increase of 6 percent, and after-tax profit of nearly VND 306 billion, 10 times higher than the previous year. However, the profit target for 2024 is based on the average live pig price of VND55,000 per kg. Therefore, with the current selling price of nearly VND70,000/kg which is likely to remain unchanged until the end of 2024, the company's profit will be even higher.
With the effect of pig prices, the stocks of giant livestock companies on the stock exchange also increased sharply, even sold out. In mid-May, the stocks of DBC (Dabaco Group), BAF (BaF Vietnam Agriculture Joint Stock Company), HAG (Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group) all increased sharply. The upward trend of pig breeding industry stocks began in mid-April 2024, with an increase of 20 percent to 30 percent.
A report from Vietcombank Securities Company shows that there are 3 main reasons for the increase in the stocks of pig breeding enterprises. The first is because the supply of pigs in the North region is no longer much. The second is that the price of pigs in the country's three regions is almost the same, so traders are interested in transporting the animals from the Southern and Central regions to the Northern region. The third is that pigs in Thailand have not been brought to Vietnam even though the price difference is quite high.
CFO Ngo Cao Cuong of BaF Vietnam Agriculture Joint Stock Company said that the reason for the high price of live pigs is mainly due to poor supply. African swine fever in the past time has greatly affected the supply of piglets, causing large livestock enterprises to have to import piglets at high costs. Meanwhile, both livestock enterprises and small-scale breeders are trying to re-herd the animal and need to wait until at least December 2024 when more hogs will be supplied to the market.
