Struggling to find outlets for VietGAP livestock products

Clean products are difficult to sell.

Dien Trung Commune (Dien Chau District) is one of the first localities to implement VietGAP livestock farming. Since 2016, the commune has had 142 households participating in the VietGAP livestock cooperative with 187 farms and ranches with an average scale of 10,000 - 20,000 chickens/farm and 20 - 70 pigs/model. Each year, households produce about 240 tons of chicken meat, 110 tons of pork meat and over 18 million eggs.

Although livestock are raised according to VietGAP standards and the products ensure food safety, finding a stable, long-term consumption direction is still difficult.

According to Mr. Dau Ngoc Hoa - Director of the Livestock Cooperative, the pork products of 40 pig farming households are currently completely dependent on the market, the selling price is not higher than that of normal pigs but is still very unstable, many times in a general state of surplus.

For broiler chickens alone, about 30% of the output has been signed with familiar "connections" such as hotels, supermarkets, schools in the district and Vinh city. In particular, Thanh Hoa Cooperative Union has signed a regular purchase contract of 20 - 25 tons of products/month.

“However, we still face many difficulties in finding and expanding a stable consumption market, because currently the cooperative and households have only been granted VietGAP certificates, while buyers require traceability and product labeling, which is still not possible,” Mr. Dau Ngoc Hoa shared.

Raising pigs according to the VietGAP model faces many difficulties in the consumption stage. Photo: Phu Huong

Mr. Dang Ngoc Thanh, Head of the Agricultural Extension Board of Xuan Son Commune, Do Luong District, said: This is the third year the commune's VietGAP production group has been established and put into operation, with 42 participating households. During the peak period, each household regularly raises 20,000 - 30,000 chickens; 30 - 50 pigs. In 2017, in a state of general loss and sluggishness, the livestock herd in Xuan Son has decreased significantly, with only about 2,500 chickens per household.

“About 90% of VietGAP livestock products still depend on traders and have not yet reached many stable consumption points, while consumers still prefer pork raised normally among the people because they believe that pork fed industrial feed will not taste good,” said Mr. Thanh.
In early 2018, Mr. Dang Anh Tuan, Hamlet 7, Xuan Son Commune, a large-scale VietGAP livestock farmer, invested 250 million VND to build a slaughterhouse, of which the state supported 140 million VND, initially specializing in slaughtering VietGAP pigs for consumption at supermarkets in Vinh City.

Mr. Tuan said: "Although it is still very difficult, the slaughterhouse has a capacity of 30 pigs/day but currently only 1-2 pigs are brought to the slaughterhouse/day, it still takes a truck to transport them to Vinh but I am still determined to follow this direction, gradually expanding the consumption network so that the products of my family and VietGAP farmers have a stable output."

What direction for VietGAP products?

Currently, the total output of VietGAP livestock in Nghe An is about 44,000 chicken eggs/month, 2,900 tons of meat/year, of which broiler chicken accounts for about 1/4. Recently, some groups and cooperatives have linked with organizations such as supermarkets, schools and industrial parks to consume products, but the stable sales volume is currently only about 15,000 chicken eggs/month, 15 tons of pork/month, and broiler chicken sold in markets and restaurants.

Many families actively implement clean livestock farming. Photo by Thai Hien

On that basis, the project management and implementation board believes that finding a stable consumption market for VietGAP products will go in 3 directions.

The first, in places where the system of farms and livestock farms has been planned, directing the construction of concentrated safe production areas, with support to complete standard processes from breeding to traceability and slaughter to consume a stable amount of products in large quantities. Currently, Nghe An has formed 3 VietGAP livestock cooperatives in Nghi Van (Nghi Loc), Nam Giang (Nam Dan) and Giang Son Dong (Do Luong) and 3 cooperatives: Dien Trung, Tay Lien (Dien Chau) and Duc Thanh (Nam Dan);

MondayIn areas with key farms and surrounding farm systems such as Xuan Son (Do Luong), investments will be made in building slaughterhouses, introducing and selling products in supermarkets, clean food stores, and schools in and outside the province;

TuesdayFor small-scale livestock farms scattered among the people, the most solid and reasonable direction is to follow the correct farming process, ensuring safe products, and then linking with slaughterhouses to sell them in 54 VietGAP markets that have been handed over and put into use by the project.

Although the above 3 directions are proposed with many expectations, but according to the trend, VietGAP livestock products are increasing in output, requiring a large amount of stable processing and consumption systems and possibly aiming for export. In the long term, it is necessary to have strong enough businesses to act as "midwives" and solve the output for clean livestock products.