Vietnam currently lacks pigs to breed after the impact of African swine fever. Import of pigs from Thailand will help restore stocks for the next few years (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam has imported 250 pigs from Thailand to breed andis encouraging businesses to import more to help restock herds across thecountry after the impacts of the African swine fever outbreak.
DeputyMinister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said this was thefirst shipment of 20,000 pigs to be imported from Thailand this year.
Tiensaid that domestic piglet prices are currently very high, from 2.8 millionVND (120 USD) to more than 3 million VND (over 128.6 USD) each, however manylocalities have failed to meet farmers’ demands.
PhamTran Sum, director of Viet Duc International Nutrition Company Limited, saidthe company faced many difficulties transporting pigs from Thailand due tothe impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Shipments had to go through the bordersof Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
“Ineach country, we must use our own vehicles to transport the pigs, causingtransportation costs to rise up to 2 million VND per pig,” Sum said.
Theprice of imported pigs is ranging from 13-15 million VND.
Sumsaid his company planned to sell piglets for more than 2 million VND each,marking a drop of about 30 percent compared with the current piglet prices inthe domestic market.
DeputyMinister Tien said businesses had registered to import more than 110,000 pigsto breed this year to ensure sufficient stocks from 2020-24./.
