Discarded chicken from China is flooding into Vietnam.

Domestic broiler chicken prices have fallen to 25,000-30,000 VND/kg, 5,000-6,000 VND/kg lower than production costs, but smuggled chicken is selling for only half that price. While domestic chicken prices are plummeting, discarded and smuggled chickens from China continue to flood into the country, causing chicken prices to fall even further.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son, Deputy Director of the Department of Animal Husbandry, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, warned about the meat surplus situation since May because at the end of last year, livestock farmers aggressively restocked their herds, leading to a fairly rapid development of poultry farming.

Poultry herd growth in the first six months of the year reached nearly 6%, with poultry meat production reaching nearly 430,000 tons, an increase of over 13%. However, contrary to the increase in supply, consumer spending decreased significantly due to the impact of the economic recession. Therefore, chicken prices in June and the first few days of July fell to only 25,000 VND/kg.

More than 10 tons of discarded Chinese chicken enter the market every day.

However, there's a puzzling paradox: while the market is oversupplied with chicken and prices have plummeted, smuggled chickens have been flooding the domestic market for months. In Hanoi alone, in the first few days of July, market management forces seized 17 tons of smuggled chickens.

According to Mr. Nguyen Huy Dang, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Chinese do not eat discarded chickens because they contain residual hormones, antibiotics, and many harmful substances; they only eat ducks and young chickens. They sell discarded chickens for only 5,000-6,000 VND/kg. However, if successfully transported and consumed in Vietnam, the price can reach 25,000 VND/kg.

With such high profit margins, controlling smuggled poultry is extremely difficult because smuggling has formed organized networks that authorities have yet to fully control. Since the beginning of the year, Hanoi has spent over 1 billion VND destroying smuggled chickens of unknown origin. However, if smugglers circumvent the law by raising the chickens in another province, then obtaining quarantine certificates and selling them, this is impossible to control.

At a recent meeting of the Steering Committee for Livestock and Poultry Disease Prevention and Control in Hanoi, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Diep Kinh Tan stated that the unusual thing is that while domestic chicken prices are plummeting, smuggled chickens from China are still flooding into Vietnam.

The reason is that the price of discarded chickens from China is too cheap. "Currently, the price of domestically raised industrial chickens has dropped to only 25,000-30,000 VND/kg, which is already 5,000-6,000 VND/kg lower than the production cost. This means that the longer farmers raise chickens, the more losses they incur, but smuggled, discarded chickens from China are sold at only half that price."

Smuggled chickens flooding into the country not only pose a risk of disease outbreaks and food safety issues but also increase pressure on domestic poultry farmers. Consumers are also unwilling to consume smuggled chicken meat. Therefore, to protect domestic farmers and consumers, stricter controls on smuggled chickens must be implemented at the border, and this is partly the responsibility of the authorities at border crossings. Once smuggled chickens have penetrated deep into the interior, detection and prevention become very difficult. Localities deep within the country also lack the resources to apprehend every single smuggled chicken truck across their vast territories. Therefore, it is necessary to severely punish the ringleaders of the chicken smuggling operation.

Deputy Minister Diep Kinh Tan also requested the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to resolutely implement the Prime Minister's directive on controlling smuggled poultry, to prevent the massive influx of smuggled poultry as seen recently. According to Deputy Minister Diep Kinh Tan, another problem is that when China temporarily suspends livestock and poultry imports from Vietnam, not even a single pig can cross their border, while despite all our efforts, discarded chickens from China are still smuggled into Vietnam.

According to Saigon Economic Times - nt