Many farmers have not yet restored their herds, Nghe An is lacking in pork supply

Pork is currently selling for between 150,000 and 180,000 VND/kg. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Pork is still 180,000 VND/kg

During April 9-11, the price of live pigs and pork sold in Nghe An remained high, at some places at 85,000 VND/kg of live pigs and 180,000 VND/kg of pork.

According to many pork traders in some markets in Do Luong: The price of live pigs at this time if bought at farms is 85 thousand VND/kg, bought at small-scale farms is 75 - 78 thousand VND/kg. The market price for each kg of pork is from 150 - 180 thousand VND. At the markets of Tan Ky town and Yen Thanh town on the morning of April 11, pork traders said that the price of pork has not decreased compared to April 1, still at 140,000 - 150,000 VND/kg, lean loin is priced at 170,000 VND/kg.

It is known that the reason for the high price of pork is because farmers have not had time to rebuild their herds, so small-scale pigs raised by the people are not as abundant as before, "supply cannot meet demand". Pig slaughterers said that it is increasingly difficult to catch live pigs from the people because there are few people raising them.

Shortage of pork supply

Nghia Thai commune is the locality with the largest tradition of small-scale pig farming in Tan Ky district, but currently the total pig herd has decreased sharply. Mr. Phan Kim Van - Chairman of Nghia Thai commune People's Committee said: Before the African swine fever epidemic, the locality had nearly 3 thousand pigs. But since the African swine fever epidemic occurred in some areas of the commune, people stopped raising pigs, so the total pig herd at the beginning of April was only 1,818. Mr. Van said that the sharp increase in pig prices in recent times is because people have not yet re-herded, so the amount of live pigs is not as abundant as before.

Pig farms have been repopulating their herds strongly in recent times. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Mr. Nguyen Huu Dai commented that the reason pork prices are high is because the pig herd among the people is not stable, leading to supply not meeting demand.

According to the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, in Nghe An, there are more than 21,000 households affected by African swine fever, with more than 95,000 pigs having to be destroyed, mainly occurring in small-scale households and some farms. Currently, the number of households eligible to re-herd is not large, so most households with infected pigs have not re-herded. In the province, there are currently nearly 900,000 pigs, mainly due to re-herding by large farms.

The number of pigs raised in small-scale farms is currently low, so it cannot meet the demand for pork. Photo: Xuan Hoang

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Lap - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, large-scale pig farms in Nghe An mainly sell large quantities to domestic food processing enterprises. The amount of pigs sold on the market today is mainly from medium and small pig farms and small-scale farming among people. However, due to the impact of African swine fever, many households have not dared to re-herd; in addition, some localities have been free of the epidemic for a long time, although people have re-herded, because the pigs have not reached the time to sell. Or maybe because the price of pigs is high, people are not willing to sell, but continue to raise them to increase their weight, so there is a shortage of supply at this time.

To solve the pork supply problem in the market, Mr. Nguyen Van Lap said that Vietnam has imported tens of thousands of tons of pork from abroad, and in big cities, imported pork is widely sold in supermarkets and stores. Therefore, at this time, Nghe An also needs a solution to bring imported pork to encourage people to eat imported pork to balance the supply and demand of pork in the area.