Animal feed prices rise sharply, farmers hit hard

Chicken farmers in the central province of Binh Dinh are very worried to see animal feed prices keep rising for the last few months.

Farmer Nguyen Manh Huy in Nhon Hung Ward, An Nhon Town said that currently, a bag of 25 kilos of poultry feed was VND 270,000 - 280,000, about VND 40,000 - 50,000 more expensive than that of late last year.

Huy said that on average, he spent VND 5.4 million buying feed for every 1,000 chicken in the last three months.

“When the chickens are three months old, they eat much more but stop growing. Consequently, chicken farmers suffer more losses,” Huy said.

Many local farmers stopped raising chicken now as they could not afford feed, he said.

Mai Van Ro, owner of a farm with 30,000 free-range chickens in An Tuong Tay Commune, Hoai An District said that despite increasing feed prices, chickens’ prices in the market dropped.

During national holidays April 30 and May 1, he could sell a kilo of free rang chicken for VND 70,000 and a kilo of caged chicken for VND 60,000 - 61,000, he said, adding now, the prices were only VND 65,000 and VND 55,000 - 56,000 respectively.

“With 30,000 chickens consuming nearly 1.5 tonnes of feed daily, I have to pay about VNĐ 18 million for feed,” Ro said.

“About 20 days ago, I still could sell the chicken to other provinces of Da Nang or Quang Nam but now, it was more difficult to find output for the chicken. As a result, chicken breeders like me are suffering huge losses,” he said.

Besides the chicken, Ro is also raising 120 pigs. He said that feed for pigs was also more expensive. 

However, thanks to the current high prices of pigs, farmers only have profits reduced.

Nguyen Thanh Vuong, director of Hoai An District’s Centre for Agriculture Services explained that currently, the price of a super lean pig reduced to only VND 68,000 per kilo while a super lean breeding pig cost VND 3.5 million.

Normally, a farmer spent about VND 2.5 million buying animal feed for a pig for five months. If the pig reached the weight of 100 kg, the farmer could sell for VND 6.8 million. So he could earn a profit of only VND 800,000 while previously when a kilo of super lean pig cost nearly VND 80,000, he could earn a profit of up to VND 2.5 million.

Vuong added that before the Lunar New Year celebration, farmers in Hoai An District sold about 1,000 pigs daily to Thua Thien-Hue and Da Nang. 

However, due to the resurgence of the COVID-19, about 500-600 pigs from the district were sold daily to market, Vuong said.

He added that there used to be dozens of small animal feed agencies in the districts but now, almost all of them halted their business.

Farmers now directly bought animal feed from producers so that they could save some money, Vuong said, adding that 13 local animal feed producers in the district sent staff to meet and consult farmers directly.