Tens of thousands of livestock facilities nationwide will have to move out of residential areas or cease operations. (Photo: VNA) But it's feared the same regulation will cause problems for smallhouseholds running pig farms.
The Law on Livestock that was effective from 2020 has an articleon prohibiting to conduct livestock production in areas not allowed forlivestock production in cities, towns and living quarters; except raisingornamental animals and raising animals in the laboratory without polluting theenvironment.
According to the law, that regulation will come into effect fromJanuary 1, 2025 with localities given five years to relocate unsuitablelivestock facilities.
Tens of thousands of livestock facilities nationwide will have tomove out of residential areas or cease operations. This is considered a greatchange of the livestock sector.
According to analysts, the new regulation will force smalllivestock farms to leave, making way for large-scale facilities. This is alsoan inevitable trend for the livestock industry to be standardised.
According to the January 2024 report released by AgribankSecurities Joint Stock Company (Agriseco), many livestock households will haveto stop their production. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development hasa draft to support those livestock households in the relocation of their farms.But, up to now it has not been approved.
With this change, large listed enterprises of the livestockindustry have actively invested in expansion to increase capacity.
Notably, Dabaco Vietnam Group Joint Stock Company (stock code:DBC) and BaF Vietnam Agriculture Joint Stock Company (stock code: BAF) haveinvested in a series of new livestock farms to increase capacity.
Dabaco has invested in increasing capacity with a series oflarge-scale livestock farm projects. They include a livestock project withcapacity of 5,600 sows and 77,400 commercial pigs in Thanh Hoa, and Dabaco PhuTho pig breed project's Phase 3 with a capacity of 4,800 sows and more than70,000 commercial pigs. The total capacity of the two projects increases bynearly 25 per cent.
The large businesses also have an advantage of having food supplychain from farm to table, being less affected by diseases than the supply fromlivestock households, thanks to ensuring hygiene and safety in production.
In addition, the large businesses will not sell off due to havingthe disease, reducing price fluctuations in the market.
According to experts, to have stable development in the livestockindustry, localities need to actively implement the Livestock Law and livestockdevelopment strategies. They need to focus on developing a market-orientedlivestock industry, promoting the strengths of each region and each keylivestock to improve production efficiency.
They should also promote a high-tech livestock industry, developkey products associated with brand construction and development, andcontinuously expand livestock production applying VietGAP standards.
In the Livestock Development Strategy until 2030, Vietnam strivesto have a total pig herd of 30 million, produce about 6 million tonnes of meat(pork accounting for 60%), and export 15-20% of pork output total.
In 2024, the livestock industry aims to increase production valueby about 4-5% compared to 2023, and the proportion of livestock in the overallagricultural production is estimated to reach 28-30%./.
VNA
