Information and trade connections of animal products necessary and useful

Tong Xuan Chinh, Deputy Director of the Department of Livestock production under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) expressed his point of view as talking about the topic "Trade Connections to promote animal product consumption". 

Animal production consumption tends to rise by 12-17%

What problems the consumption of animal products are facing, Sir?"

The market has recently seen the imbalance between supply and demand driven by the disruption of the entire value chain of livestock product at various stages. Typically, while animal feed prices have spiked, logistics costs have spurred by 300% the prices of pork and chiken meat have plunged.

Pork price plunged to VND25,000 per kilogram at certain times and the prices of industrially-raised chicken meat was only VND5,000 to VND6,000 per kilogram. However hard times are only temporary. When the pandemic are under control demand for animal products will increase because supply can't keep up with demand.

At present, live hog prices spur to VND15,000 to VDN22,000 per kilogram closer to the production costs after the price slumped due to the Covid-19 pandemic . Therefore, supply and demand will back to pre-pandemic levels amid the new normal.

For this reason we must encourage large-scale and major enterprises to operate at a full capacity right now to make up for the decrease in the production from small-scale farmers who are afraid of restocking their herds. This measures will keep supply and price stable by year-end.

The prices of animal products tend to increase by 12-17% in the year end and ahead of Lunar New Year.

What should we do to close the gap in the supply chain of livestock products which has been disrupted due to the pandemic?

The Central Government has urged localities not to issue any procedure that create obstacles for the circulation of good nationwide. This is the most important thing.

For the associations, supermarket chains, retail enterprises, processing plants and farms, they must connect with each other through online and e-commerce platforms.

In particular, employees working at slaughterhouses must be fully vaccinated to develop a close value chain for livestock products.

African swine fever outbreaks are now occurring in many areas and it starts getting cold in the North. What advice would you give to farmers so that they can take care of their animals with the best?

There are four tasks we have to prepare for the 2021-2022 winter-spring cropping season and the last months of the year. First, it will get colder, an ideal condition for the outbreak of common animal diseases. Therefore we should take precaution, raising farmers' awareness and implementing biosecurity measures along with fully vaccinating animals against dangerous diseases such as African swine fever, bird flu, lumpy skin disease

In particular breeders should fatten and sell out old and weak cows and buffaloes because it will be risky to raise cattle in very cold weather.   

Right now, farming households need to take account of how to sell their animals for the upcoming Lunar New Year to achieve higher prices.

Imported meat accounts for only a small proportion

Recently, it's said that the increase in pork imports have caused domestic pig prices to swing strongly. What do you think about this opinion?

Vietnam has currently signed a series of free trade agreements, making extremely powerful commitments.  So, it's important for Vietnam to increase competitive advantages of all commodities including animal products on both the domestic and foreign markets. It's the basic principle.

And once again, I would like to affirm that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, in particular the Department of Livestock Production published all data of meat imports. Accordingly imported meat accounted for only a small proportion in comparison with the volume of domestically-produce meat depending on each product. However generally, it just varied from 2% to 3.5% of the total production.

Vietnam has opened door to goods from other countries including pork, chicken, cattle meat. In their turns, these countries have also opened doors to Vietnamese agricultural products. As a result, Vietnam's agricultural export value has continuously increased over the years. However we must depend on market demand as well as our ability to ensure supply and demand.

With free trade policies, importing then processing and exporting to make products more valuable is nothing new. That’s why a powerful and wealthy country like the United States of America still imports dairy products and beef from Canada to process and create added value products

Statistics and predictions still far from the reality

Do you think that in the long-run we need to take measures to make statistics work better and improve meat market prediction? Because better forecasting means better advice for farmers and enterprises, right?

That’s right! One of the biggest challenges for the agricultural sector and livestock industry in particular is that statistics and market prediction is still far from the reality. This task needs to be renovated and invested more in terms of technology application and resources.

To do that, the statistics system of the Ministry of Planning and Investment also needs new innovations in terms of method, approach to make the predictions closer to the real-world figures. For example, it’s necessary to increase the frequency of the censuses instead of taking samples because taking samples can’t be totally accurate.

On the hand of the MARD and the Department of Livestock Production we will take a closer look at the statistics to see what we are good at or weak at as well as what we can do and what we can not. Second, it’s necessary to quickly invest in the digitalization of the entire statistics system of the agricultural sector. I believe that we can absolutely do it with the help of science and technology.

Farmers can provide all information to management authorities with a smart phone only. So we can have a big data system of all sectors. Particularly the livestock sector will have database of animal feed, breeds, farming facilities, households, enterprises and production process.

Only when the database is big enough can we apply the mathematical models to forecasting. Because forecasting must be based on science not subjective assessments. The Department of Livestock Production has made a very detailed plan for the livestock industry to develop a database for the sector.

Forum on Connecting Agricultural products 970 becomes a brand

What do you expect from the Forum on Connecting Agricultural Products (9th session) that is due to take place on October 30 with the theme “sharing information and promoting trade connections for animal products”?

Forum on Connecting Agriucultural products 970 has become a brand nationwide and it has brought about the positive results in recent time.

Large enterprises are now establishing a wide-range distribution system even through e-commerce platforms. However the forum means a lot to farmers, cooperatives, production lingkage chains and small and medium size enterprises as it has promoted trade connections.

To make the forum more effective and bring more benefits to more people, we hope that organizations and individuals participating in the forum will choose the contents that are close to the forum’s theme. For example, as for suppliers they should only provide us what they want sell, how product quality is and how the products are processed, how much and when they can provide their products.

For buyers, they have to provide enough information of what they want to buy, what requirements there are in terms of quantity and quality and when they want to get the products. Leaders of the provinces will inform of the supply of local key products from now until the year end so that producers and purchasers can know.

Thank you!

Trade connections for livestock products

On the morning of October 30, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) held an online forum to share information and promote trade connections for livestock products. The aim is to restore and develop livestock value chain in the new normal.

The event with the participation of hundreds of bridge points was broadcast live on the website of Bao Nong nghiep Viet Nam (Vietnam Agriculture News) (https://nongnghiep.vn) and other online platforms of Vietnam Agriculture News at these links:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NôngnghiệpVietNamOfficial

https://www.facebook.com/NongNghiepVietNamOnline/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/diendannn  

The information of buyers and suppliers are also available at https://zalo.me/g/zjlpeh497

Enterprises, cooperatives and farmers who want to connect with suppliers and buyers or want to promote their products and services on Vietnam Agriculture News can contact the hotline: 0974.488.808; 0916.054.556, or email: ketnoinongsanvietnam@gmail.com.