Vietnam imports pigs from Thailand

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 and is encouraging businesses to import more to help restock herds across the country after the impacts of the African swine fever outbreak.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said this was the first shipment of 20,000 pigs to be imported from Thailand this year.

Tien said that domestic piglet prices are currently very high, from 2.8 million VND (120 USD) to more than 3 million VND (over 128.6 USD) each, however many localities have failed to meet farmers’ demands.

Pham Tran Sum, director of Viet Duc International Nutrition Company Limited, said the company faced many difficulties transporting pigs from Thailand due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Shipments had to go through the borders of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.

“In each country, we must use our own vehicles to transport the pigs, causing transportation costs to rise up to 2 million VND per pig,” Sum said.

The price of imported pigs is ranging from 13-15 million VND.

Sum said 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 in the domestic market.

Deputy Minister Tien said businesses had registered to import more than 110,000 pigs to breed this year to ensure sufficient stocks from 2020-24./.