Super cheap foreign meat floods the Vietnamese market

According to data from the General Department of Customs, in the first two months of 2018, Vietnamese people spent more than 8.88 million USD to import beef from the US, and also spent about 6.62 million USD to import the same product from Australia.

In total, in the two largest beef supplying markets for Vietnam, over the past two months Vietnamese people have spent more than 15.5 million USD (equivalent to more than 280 billion VND) on imported meat.

Previously, in 2017, Vietnam imported beef of these two origins worth 56.22 million USD and 31.49 million USD, respectively.

American beef brisket is a favorite dish of many Vietnamese people today.

In terms of types, American beef is usually frozen, imported to Vietnam and sliced ​​into small pieces and sold in supermarkets and specialized restaurants. Types of American beef are usually beef shank, tenderloin, brisket, ribs, shoulder, shoulder core... Meanwhile, beef imported from Australia is usually fresh beef, frozen beef in whole pieces, the most common types of meat are shank, shoulder and thigh.

Foreign beef has flooded the market, "covering" all supermarkets, stores, "online markets", especially the beef belly advertised as imported from the US. The price of this type of meat sold to consumers ranges from 150,000-250,000 VND/kg depending on the type, much cheaper than Vietnamese beef.

Information that imported beef to Vietnam from the US and Australia is half the price of fresh beef in the country has made the public skeptical and many sources say that this is beef that is close to its expiration date that is why it is so cheap.

Imported beef is sold all over the "online market".

In addition to beef, super cheap American chicken thighs are also flooding the Vietnamese market, priced from only 10,000 - 20,000 VND/kg. According to data from the General Department of Customs, from the beginning of 2017 to March 15, Vietnam imported 22,500 tons of chicken meat of all kinds, worth 19.8 million USD. Thus, the average imported chicken meat only costs about 0.88 USD/kg (equivalent to 20,000 VND/kg). The types of chicken meat imported into Vietnam mainly come from the US, Brazil and South Korea.

According to the explanation of Mr. Nguyen Van Trong, Deputy Director of the Department of Animal Husbandry (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), the price of imported chicken thighs is cheap because the US and some countries in the world only eat chicken breast, so this is the most expensive part. Meanwhile, products such as neck, wings, legs, thighs, chicken gizzards... are less eaten by consumers in these countries. Therefore, they sell these products at cheap prices to Asian countries including Vietnam.

Super cheap American chicken thighs appear on the Vietnamese market.

However, Mr. Trong also said that with the unusually cheap price of chicken, even down to less than 10,000 VND/kg, it is not impossible that businesses are importing chicken that is about to expire.

At a recent press conference of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Dam Xuan Thanh, Deputy Director of the Department of Animal Health, affirmed that all livestock and poultry food products, including beef imported into Vietnam, are strictly controlled.

Mr. Thanh said that foreign factories and slaughterhouses wishing to export products to Vietnam must submit documents to Vietnamese authorities and have them appraised and approved. Products entering Vietnam must meet food safety requirements to be licensed.

At the same time, 100% of frozen shipments when imported into border gates will not be subject to post-inspection but will be sampled for chemical, microbiological, labeling, production date, expiry date... When checking the samples, if any violations of safety and disease are detected, they will be fined, required to be re-exported or destroyed.

The cheap price of imported meat raises concerns about quality and food safety.

Meat prices on the market are decreasing, so without support from authorities, it will be difficult to keep up, Ms. Hanh is concerned.

According to the recommendations of EuroCham experts in the 2018 White Book, to continue improving quality and addressing food safety issues, Vietnam needs to promote traceability solutions.

There is a need to review current regulations and create a high-value agricultural and food production and supply chain. This includes building new market access opportunities, reducing antibiotics and the industry’s dependence on imported raw materials, the 2018 White Paper stated.

Tran Ngoc