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Hog prices in the market are now at a very high level.

Mr. Nguyen Kim Doan, Vice Chairman of Dong Nai Livestock Association, said: “Before the Lunar New Year 2020, hog prices in Dong Nai used to reach the peak of VND92,000/kg, but this price lasted for about 5 days  only. After that the price dropped. This time, hog prices set a new peak of VND96,000/kg and this high price has lasted for many days, which shows no decreasing signs.”

Hog prices are increasing, which means that resuming livestock activities at this time is expected to gain a great profit but most livestock households and large-scale farms in Dong Nai have not been able to resume their activities due to lack of loans, high prices of breeds and many other risks.

A pig farm owner in Thong Nhat district said, due to African swine fever his has stopped breeding for months. Currently, diseases have been kept under control and his family wishes to continue their activities but have no loans. In recent times, each breed pig of 7 kg cost more than VND3 million, 3 times higher than that before the time when African swine fever occurred. Now, if famers would like to resume their activities, they have to buy breeds and animal feed at nearly VND6 million/pig and as pigs are sold, farmers will suffer losses if prices drop below VND60,000/kg.

To contribute to reducing hog prices on the market, in addition to lowering hog prices, Livestock Joint Stock Company CP Vietnam has organized slaughtering activities and directly sold pork to retailers to cut down intermediaries. This unit is currently providing the market with 15,000 to 17,000 pigs every day and hog prices are between VND70,000/kg and VND97,000/kg. now, CP Vietnam is slaughtering the number of pigs accounting for more than 20% of the total number of pigs sold every day and supplying for more than 700 chain stores of the company.

According to CP’s representative, the solution in which CP directly slaughters and supplies pork directly to retailers will help to reduce pork prices by VND10,000/kg to 15,000/kg compared to the market price.

Regarding the reason for high prices of pigs, according to many farmers this is due to a limited supply. According to calculations, the production cycle of sows is 10 months including nearly 4 months of pregnancy and 6 months of raising piglets and then the time when pigs are sold out. Therefore, the meat production from April to May, 2020 is up to the total number of breeding sows from June to July 2019 which is the peak time of African swine fever. It is forecast that pork shortage will persist a few months to come.

According to the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, before the occurrence of African swine fever in April 2019, Dong Nai’s total pigs were more than 2.5 million but in late 2019 there were only 1.5 million heads. In March 2020, Dong Nai announced no more African swine fever in the province and since then hundreds of farms have resumed their livestock activities with a number of nearly 220,000 pigs. At present, the province’s total number of pigs is nearly 2.1 million heads, up by about 14% compared to January, 2020. Resuming livestock activities of pigs in Dong Nai is happening quacking and this is mainly in on farms and large-scale livestock companies; meanwhile, most small and scattered farmers are still afraid of resuming their livestock activities due to high prices of breed pigs and other costs.

Mr. Huynh Thanh Vinh, Director of Dong Nai Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: “With the current rate of resuming livestock activities, it is expected that by the end of 2020 the total number of pigs in Dong Nai will reach more than 2.5 million head. In the coming months, Dong Nai’s pork supply for the market will increase and this is an important factor to help reduce pork prices.”

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said, up to now the province’s livestock industry has regained over 80% of the total number of pigs before the outbreak of African swine fever. However, the remaining 20% ​​of the number of pigs will be a very difficult task, but the industry must focus on promoting activities, ensure the country has developed herds of pigs in the 3rd and 4th quarters of the year and the country’s total pigs should be equal to those before the outbreak of diseases.

Also, minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong noted that at present localities are encouraged to increase their pigs and resume activities but the opinion of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is that bio-security measures must be ensured first and then resuming livestock activities will be allowed. In fact, African swine fever pathogens have still existed in the environment, if biosecurity measures are not well taken, diseases will immediately penetrate in farms and cause great damage. If resuming activities are not performed quickly and effectively, a corner of the pig industry’s market share will be gone. Certainly, it is impossible to keep pig prices as high as they are at this time. However, there will have to be many solutions to manage and bring pig prices to a stable level on the market.

Duy Minh (Van Minh)