Selling a herd of pigs cost 15 million VND for testing: People say it's too expensive
Regarding the issue of farmers having to pay 500,000 VND/sample for African swine fever testing before pigs can be sold, the leader of the Department of Animal Health said that this fee is currently only enough to cover the cost.
Recently, in Thai Binh and Hai Phong - areas with African swine fever outbreaks, many households raising pigs ready for sale said that the regulation of taking samples for testing before selling pigs is making it difficult for farmers. Because the price of live pigs for sale is low, while for each sample they have to pay a fee of up to 500 thousand VND.
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| Take samples while the pig is still alive. |
A farmer reported that after selling a herd of 300 pigs, the regional veterinary agency required them to take 29-30 samples for quarantine testing, which meant they lost up to 15 million VND in testing fees, which was too costly.
At the regular press conference of the first quarter of 2019 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on the morning of March 5, Deputy Director of the Department of Animal Health Dam Xuan Thanh explained that in the first phase of fighting African swine fever, the cost of taking samples for testing to determine the disease was supported by a number of businesses in the industry as well as international organizations.
“Currently, there is a fee for testing for African swine fever prevention and even for serving the consumption and transportation of live pigs for consumption. However, this fee is currently only enough to cover expenses,” Mr. Dam Xuan Thanh affirmed.
He said that currently, there are 3 localities nationwide that have declared the end of African swine fever. In Hoa Binh, there is also a locality that is about to pass 30 days without any new outbreaks. Accordingly, localities that have declared the end of the epidemic are allowed to freely consume and trade pigs.
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| Dissect the pig to collect samples when the pig is dead. |
Regarding support when pigs are culled due to African swine fever, the minimum support level is 80% of the market price for piglets and pigs. For sows and male pigs that are subject to culling, the support level is multiplied by 1.5-2.5 times.
According to Mr. Thanh, the support budget is decided by the People's Committees of the provinces. The implementation of support is also relatively fast. For example, in Hanoi, after pigs are destroyed, farmers receive support money after 7 days.
According to the Department of Agricultural Product Processing and Market Development (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), as of March 28, African swine fever has spread to 23 provinces and cities from the North to the Central region, forcing the destruction of more than 85,000 pigs. This has caused great damage to Vietnam's pig farming industry.
However, for about a week now, the epidemic has been gradually controlled, the spread has slowed down. Currently, 3 localities have contained the epidemic. Pork prices have also started to increase again, many provinces in the North have increased to 39,000 - 42,000 VND/kg.