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.
Despite being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to calculations, the export turnover of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sector of Vietnam will reach the previously-set target of US$40 billion this year, heard at the regular press conference of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on October 6 in Hanoi.
The People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City has sent documents to localities ordering pig repopulation under the "Project on restructuring the pig industry in the period from 2021 to 2025" to revive husbandry, reduce the risk of disease recurrence, and meet consumer demand.
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.
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.
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.