Vietnam will continue to import meat, salt, sugar, animal feed and steel products for this year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has predicted.

This year, total domestic demand for all meat products will increase 6.5-7 percent to 2.9 million tonnes, the ministry said. There will be a resultant shortfall of 90,000-100,000 tonnes of meat which will need to be imported.

The ministry also estimated Vietnam will import 182,000 tonnes of salt this year because domestic demand is expected to reach 1.35 million tonnes while local production will be just over 1 million tonnes.

The country will also import 250,000 tonnes of sugar this year, lower than 2010's 300,000 tonnes, the ministry said.

Domestic demand will reach 1.3-1.4 million tonnes while domestic supply will be roughly 1 million tonnes.

Animal feed is another of the essential goods that will need to be imported in 2011 because domestic supply will total only 15.2 million tonnes of the estimated total demand of 20.6 million tonnes.

Total imports will reach 7.7 million tonnes this year against 6 million last year.

Meanwhile, steel imports are predicted to reach 1 million tonnes this year as the domestic demand is estimated at 6.5 million tonnes while local production is expected to reach just 5.8 million tonnes./.