Pigs 'waiting for price' from China

After the 2017 Lunar New Year, the price of live pigs began to increase slightly again. However, due to heavy losses before the New Year, many farmers still tried to "hoard" pigs, waiting for prices to rise higher to recoup their losses.

Currently, the price of live pigs in the Southeast market fluctuates around 35,000 VND/kg. However, according to some pig purchasing businesses in Dong Nai - the locality with the largest pig population in the country, farmers are still asking for prices at 37,000 - 38,000 VND/kg, causing this consumption channel to almost stop operating.

Waiting for price from… China

Pig prices have increased, but many pig farmers in Thong Nhat district (Dong Nai) do not want to sell their pigs. Photo: KH

Mr. Phan Khac Dung - a trader with 20 years of experience buying pigs in Dong Nai, commented when talking about the rising price of live pigs but farmers still hoarding goods to push up prices: "Almost from after Tet until now, we have only bought and sold pigs sparingly. When calling any farm, they push the price 5 - 7 times higher than the market price (1 lai = 1,000 VND - PV) compared to the market price. Now pig farmers are just waiting for the price from Chinese traders."

Indeed, according to the reporter's investigation, in Dong Nai there is a phenomenon of pig farmers hoarding goods to wait for prices. According to Mr. Nguyen Kim Doan - Vice President of Dong Nai Livestock Association, this is the common mentality of pig farmers. "For the past two weeks, pig farmers have heard the news that China is opening its market. At the same time, CP Vietnam Livestock Joint Stock Company is also collecting pigs in the system to export to China, making farmers believe that the price of live pigs will increase sooner or later, so they hoard goods" - Mr. Doan said.

Mr. Dinh Viet Thinh, a farmer in Gia Kiem commune (Thong Nhat, Dong Nai) said that he is raising 100 pigs and more than ten sows. Before Tet, he saw that the price of live pigs had dropped too much so he sold 50 pigs. However, after Tet, he saw that the price of live pigs had increased, so he stopped selling to wait and see if the price would increase further. "Currently, I have about 50 pigs weighing about 100kg each. I have suffered a lot of losses from this batch of pigs. Now that I have heard that the price of pigs has increased, I want to keep the pigsty and wait until the price is good to sell them to recoup my losses," said Mr. Thinh.

Meanwhile, in Bao Hoa commune (Xuan Loc, Dong Nai) - a commune that before Tet still "rescued" the remaining pigs by slaughtering them to share for Tet, now they are also hoarding goods waiting for prices to rise. According to Mr. Van Quang Giang - Vice Chairman of the Commune Farmers' Association, during the last Tet season, the whole commune raised more than 50,000 pigs. However, more than 50% of the pigs in the commune have not been sold. "There are still many pigs left, but people are still trying to hoard goods waiting for prices to increase, because even if they sell them now, they will still lose money" - Mr. Giang said.

Need to proactively sell

According to Mr. Phan Minh Bau - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dong Nai province, the province currently has about 400,000 pigs weighing 70kg or more. The reason for such a large amount of pigs remaining is due to the "hot" herd growth in the past year. Accordingly, if in 2015 Dong Nai's total pig herd was 1.7 million, in 2016 it suddenly increased to 2.1 million, leading to a "shocking" increase in supply when the Chinese market stopped importing goods.

According to Mr. Nguyen Kim Doan, the price has increased but farmers are not willing to sell their remaining pigs. This is too risky because the market has not shown any signs of improvement, while farmers have to continue to invest capital to buy pig feed. "Although at this time, the situation of overloaded pigs (1.2 - 1.5 quintals/head) in the population is no longer as "hot" as about 2 months ago, if people do not sell their pigs in a few months, many farms will have to mortgage their assets to maintain their farming activities," said Mr. Doan. Recently, to deal with the remaining pigs, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dong Nai has called on businesses in the processing industry to increase pig purchases. On the other hand, farmers must look at the market to promptly adjust the size of their herds, avoid the risk of losing more and more, and must proactively sell pigs early instead of storing pigs to sell to China.

According to the Dong Nai Livestock Association, after this pig price crisis, many small-scale pig farmers no longer have capital to maintain their pigsties and have had to "hang up" their pigs. Large-scale pig farms are considering reducing their herds to avoid losses. "In the current situation of "unstable" prices, if you see the price, you should accept selling even if you lose this batch of pigs, because you don't know if the price of pigs will increase further or not, but certainly if you keep the goods, you will lose more money on feed. People raise several batches of pigs a year, doing business means there are gains and losses, if you lose this batch of pigs, you have to find a way to make up for the next batch" - Mr. Van Quang Giang offered a solution.

According to Tran Dang/danviet