Epidemic causes pork price to skyrocket

VIET NAM - The pork price in HCMC is skyrocketing as widespread pig diseases in the past eight months have causes the herd to contract and the supply to dwindle, saud an an official from the city's Department of Trade.
calendar icon 30 August 2007
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Truong Trung Viet, deputy director of the Trade Department, said that the pork demand in HCMC was 270 to 30 tons a day, but city-based farms were able to meet 15-20 per cent of the demand here. The city is reliant on pig supply from other provinces for the balance, he said.

"Since the beginning of this year, fresh pork price has increased 20-30 per cent," he said.

In HCMC, one kilo of live pig meat is priced at VND28,000-34,000, increasing VND5,000-8,000 compared to the price before outbreaks.

Viet explained that the prolonged pig epidemic caused huge losses for local farmers while the pig supply in neighboring provinces has also fallen.

Van Duc Muoi, deputy director of Vissan, which is the key supplier of pork and other meat products in HCMC, said the meat supply from the central region is declining due to epidemic breakouts. Thus, the city market must depend on small suppliers in the Mekong Delta and other nearby provinces.

Early this month, the Ministry of Finance reduced taxes on imported products including meat to curb inflation. Duties on imported pork dropped from 30 to 20 per cent, but this supply source does not tend to increase due to high prices.

Muoi said the majority of local consumers could not afford imported meat.

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