The information of 'backlog of 8 million pigs' denied

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Trong, Deputy Director of the Department of Livestock Production (MARD), nineteen provinces in the Southeast region and the Mekong Delta were affected by Covid-19 and had recently taken many measures to deal with the pandemic. Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in particular had to implement social distancing.

This causes consumer demand to decrease as restaurants, collective kitchens, schools, and tourist attractions are basically closed. Such reduction leads to product stagnation in barns, not to mention social distancing makes circulation and transportation of goods difficult. One more thing to note is that people’s income has decreased significantly and there are even those who have no income.

Talking about the story of breeding, livestock has a biological cycle.

It takes roughly 8 months specifically to raise from suckling pigs until spawning, 4 months for mating, approximately 5-6 months to raise for slaughter then acquire the product. Thus, it takes 17-18 months from raising piglets to getting the final product - meat.

The weight of pigs for slaughter is usually about 100 - 120 kg. In the context of necessity, it is possible to release them sooner when they reach 70-90 kg, and in stagnation they can be raised to more than 120 kg, the later stage is mainly fat storage.

However, the larger the output volume, the lower the price. When the amount of excessive pigs is around 30%, traders will buy them at a cheap price, so there are times when the price drops from VND 30,000 to 35,000/kg.

After social distancing, the circulation improves and the consumption rate increases, so the price has increased again accordingly.

The price of pig has recently increased to VND 35,000 - 45,000/kg. Some provinces even reach VND 46,000 - 49,000/kg. It is prognosticated that the price will continue to increase in the coming time.

The total pig herd is approximately 28 million heads and this number has not changed much in reality, of which 2.93 million are sows. The amount of pigs for slaughter this year is expected to be 3.82 million tons more or less, which is equivalent to 50 million pigs released from the slaughterhouse.

The leader of the Department of Livestock Production shared that we have a backlog of about 30% of overage pigs at the moment, which is only approximately 1.5 million, not 8 million as some unofficial information sources have recently given.

On the other hand, China is a country with a very large herd of pigs but the price has also dropped recently, less than VND 35,000/kg if calculated in Vietnamese currency. This also has a great affect onto the Vietnamese market.

"With the existing herd structure, we can fully be proactive in terms of food source in the remaining months of 2021, the Lunar New Year and the first months of 2022. However, it is also necessary to create conditions for farmers to borrow money to maintain the herd, promote re-herd and increase the number of pigs," said Mr. Trong.