Breeders continue to earn profits in the first quarter of 2024

At the conference briefing on the livestock sector in the first quarter and listening to reports of some recommendations from livestock industry associations held on April 2, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien highly appreciated the achievements of the livestock industry in the first quarter. In the context of climate change, erratic weather changes, and disease outbreaks in cattle and poultry that appear sporadically, the entire industry always strives to achieve positive results.

"Although livestock farming has achieved certain progress in recent times, exports are still modest, need to be further promoted, and need to master technology and closely follow technology, circulars, and documents of the Ministry and Government. Existing projects on livestock industry development need to be quickly implemented," Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien emphasized.

To create a big push to promote exports, the livestock industry needs to enhance cooperation opportunities in the context of implementing the regulations of CPTPP and EVFTA. Survey and evaluate the market, and seek opportunities for exporting Vietnam’s livestock products to a number of countries in ASEAN, Asia, the Americas, and the EU.

In particular, the key task is to improve production capacity, control breed quality, and strengthen inspection of breed quality management in localities. Continue to review the livestock breed production system on the basis of public services and digital transformation; apply and publish applicable standards for breeding facilities in the system.

Director of the Department of Livestock Production Duong Tat Thang said that in the first quarter, because the weather was quite favorable without prolonged damaging cold and localities implemented disease control work quite well, the situation of livestock farming was relatively stable in terms of both total herd and growth rate.

According to estimated data, in the first quarter of 2024, although buffalo herds decreased by 2.5% and cow herds decreased by 0.1%, live buffalo meat output still increased by 0.36%, reaching 32,900 tons. Live beef output is estimated at 132,500 tons, an increase of 1.5%; and cow milk output is estimated at 331,300 tons, an increase of 5.2%. Pig herds increased by 3.3%; live pork output is estimated at 1.294 million tons, an increase of 4.6%. As a whole, the total output of live meat of all kinds in the first quarter is estimated at over 2 million tons, up 4.5% over the same period in 2023.

Regarding prices of raw materials and animal feed, compared to the same period in 2023 and the fourth quarter of 2023, the prices suffered a slight decline. Compared to the peak period of animal feed raw material prices (second quarter of 2022), the prices of main raw materials such as corn kernels and soybean meal decreased by 26.2% and 8.6%, respectively.

The Department of Livestock Production commented that in the coming time, due to stable raw material supply and reduced prices, domestic finished animal feed prices will continue to follow a downward trend, but it will be difficult to return to the pre-epidemic price level.

Regarding the price of live pork, in early 2024, the price of live pork nationwide increased rapidly compared to the end of 2023. On average, in January 2024, the live pork price reached VND 53,000/kg. The price increased by about VND 3,000–4,000/kg in February and continued to grow in March, with a monthly average of VND 58,100/kg.

Currently, the price of live pork is fluctuating from VND 58,000 to VND 62,000/kg, depending on each province, and there have been contrasting increases and decreases between regions in the past few days. To be more specific, while the North has decreased slightly by VND 1,000–2,000/kg, the South has increased correspondingly to this level.

Compared to the average price of live pork in the first quarter of the past 3 years, the average price in the first quarter of 2024 is about VND 5,000/kg higher, and it increased by 9.7% compared to the same period in 2023. With the current selling price, in general, breeders are earning a profit of VND 5,000–6,000/kg.

In the second quarter, the livestock industry focuses on perfecting the legal document system as planned; at the same time, strengthen coordination with relevant agencies, units, and localities to organize the implementation of the Livestock Development Strategy and take advantage of new regulations on land for concentrated livestock farming according to the Law on Land (amended).

In order for the livestock industry to continue to maintain its achievements in the second quarter and the following quarters, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son, Chairman of the Vietnam Poultry Association, raised a number of issues to help control poultry diseases. In recent times, at some border gates between Vietnam and Laos, the commodities of poultry and poultry products are not subject to quarantine, which has caused difficulties in disease prevention and control.

According to statistics, on average, in one month, at the two international border gates of Cha Lo and Nam Can, nearly 720 tons of discarded broiler chickens originating from Thailand are cleared to enter Vietnam.

Regarding directing production development, the Department of Livestock Production has identified a number of key tasks, such as organizing conferences and seminars on pig farming, poultry farming, animal feed, etc., to update and disseminate new regulations and promptly propose solutions to direct production development. Organize delegations to work with a number of localities and businesses to deploy potential livestock farming areas for export.

Along with that, the Department will build and complete the system of legal documents, programs, and projects; reform administrative procedures; organize inspection, examination, and handling of administrative violations in the field of livestock farming; and promote international cooperation in the field of livestock farming.