Following the trail of cheap pork into the slaughterhouse.

Operating without a permit, purchasing all kinds of sick and dead pigs for slaughter, and employing various tricks to disguise the meat of dead pigs to deceive customers are the horrifying secrets that the reporting team witnessed after days of infiltrating pig slaughterhouses. Operating without a permit, purchasing all kinds of sick and dead pigs for slaughter, and employing various tricks to disguise the meat of dead pigs to deceive customers are the horrifying secrets that the reporting team witnessed after days of infiltrating pig slaughterhouses.

Each kilogram of pork is sold by traders for only 30,000 to 40,000 VND. To find out why this price is so low, we followed several traders and visited the "capital" of slaughtering sick or dead pigs.

Following in the footsteps of cheap pork prices.

Having received information from readers about the widespread sale of cheap, foul-smelling pork in many places, our team of reporters infiltrated numerous wholesale and local markets in Gia Lam and Long Bien districts (Hanoi), as well as makeshift markets near industrial zones and universities in Hung Yen and Bac Giang provinces to investigate. After several days of investigation, we were surprised to witness many stalls selling pale, wilted, and foul-smelling pork openly. “Buy some, I’ll sell it cheap, 20,000 dong or 40,000 dong/kg,” a woman named Thanh selling “cheap” pork at a local market in Trau Quy town (Gia Lam) enticed customers.

A pig that had been dead for nearly two days was being prepared for butchering and selling its meat.

Known for its cheap pork, Thanh's butcher stall is always crowded. Most customers buy in large quantities; according to our investigation, they are owners of restaurants and pubs. It was only 9 am, but Thanh's meat stall had already sold out. The old Dream motorbike with license plate 89K4-71… driven by Thanh quickly left the market and headed straight towards National Highway 5 towards Hung Yen. I decided to accelerate and follow this woman's route. About 700 meters past Ban town, Thanh slowed down, turned left, and headed towards Lo Xa village, Nhan Hoa commune (My Hao district, Hung Yen province).

Upon entering the village, a pungent stench permeated the air, and the canals on either side of the road were black and foul-smelling. “They lack awareness and are so greedy. They bring back dead pigs, slaughtered and sold even days after they died. And instead of burying the intestines, lungs, and stomachs, they dump them near this cemetery. Every morning when I wake up, I collect nearly a dozen plastic bags full of dead pig intestines,” said Mr. Hoang, a resident of Lo Xa village, expressing his frustration.

In the village of Lỗ Xá, posing as someone buying large quantities of dead pigs to open a restaurant and supply shops making spring rolls and sausages, I was greeted enthusiastically by many locals. Everyone tried to persuade me to go to their relatives' houses to get the goods. "Just go to Hiền's house, she's my sister-in-law, so I know her. She has sick piglets, sick sows, sick piglets, whatever you want. There's a lot; during the African swine fever outbreak, she bought hundreds of dead pigs a day to slaughter and sell," said Mrs. N, a local resident.

Then Mrs. N continued, "In this village, many people slaughter sick or dead pigs. If you see a house that has built a cold storage facility or has several large refrigerators in front of it, that house is involved in slaughtering sick or dead pigs. If you want to buy a lot to resell, go to Thuat Hien's house, Hoa Trui's house, or Mrs. Nga's house."

Rushing to gather dead pigs

Following recommendations from several contacts, I decided to visit the slaughterhouse owned by a man named T. The spacious three-story house was always enclosed by high walls. To the left of the house was a slaughtering area of ​​about 100 square meters, where dozens of pig's feet and heads lay scattered around, swarming with flies. Seeing a stranger knocking, T looked at me suspiciously: "Where are you from? What do you want?" When I explained my reason, T glared at me: "Trying to fool me? Speaking with that thick Central Vietnamese accent, what kind of business are you in this area? Is there any place around here that I don't know? Journalist? Get lost, or my guys will take you down!"

After T's firm refusal, I went to the slaughterhouse owned by Mr. H. After a brief conversation, H chuckled gleefully: "Okay. Take as much as you want. I have meat for a few days, even for a whole week. The price varies, the cheapest is 10,000 dong/kg." From what I observed, behind H's spacious house was a slaughtering area of ​​about 150 square meters, where two employees worked continuously all day.

Leading me to see the warehouse containing three large refrigerators, H explained that, in addition to the two workers specializing in butchering dead pigs at the slaughterhouse, he had also built a network of over a dozen people from farms in neighboring districts to report and collect sick or dead pigs, then transport them to his slaughterhouse. H called this group a network of informants, or sometimes even "brokers" for dead pigs. "Now you need a network of informants everywhere like that; otherwise, you won't find dead pigs to butcher. There are so many slaughterhouses that have dead pigs lately, so the competition is fierce. Many days I have to call in three more younger brothers to help, and we still work all night. Some days, I receive hundreds of phone calls reporting dead pigs," H said.

After a phone call, H sent an employee on a motorbike carrying four sacks, not forgetting to instruct: "Gather them quickly, or the Trùy family's forces will take them all. If you can squeeze them, do so; if it's too much pressure, just pay a little extra to get them transported back."

Just like H's army, the armies of the Trui, Lan, and Thuat families also busily took turns collecting dead pigs. The village was always bustling with the sounds of motorbikes and small trucks rumbling into the village. In just about two hours on the morning of May 18th, while staking out a tea shop near the entrance to Lo Xa village, close to Dam market, we observed about 20 motorbikes carrying sick and dead pigs and 3 small trucks carrying piglets to slaughterhouses. Without any attempt at concealment, many "brokers" of dead pigs transported dozens of dead pigs at a time directly to slaughterhouses in the village for sale.

A middleman selling dead pigs hurriedly transported a truckload of slaughtered pigs into Lu Xa village.

Acting brazenly in broad daylight.

At 12 noon on May 22nd, a dilapidated old Dream motorbike, towing a makeshift iron trailer, sped straight into the village gate of Lo Xa hamlet. On the trailer lay four dead, gutted pigs, piled on top of each other and covered with a tattered blue tarpaulin. As the vehicle moved slowly, water and blood spilled onto the road, leaving long trails. Many passersby had to cover their noses, feeling nauseous from the stench.

Navigating the winding village roads, the motorbike carrying dead pigs screeched to a halt in front of a spacious three-story house. “Hoa, take the goods!” After the call, the homeowner and his wife, both wearing masks and gloves, came out to unload the goods. “They must have died a few days ago. They stink so badly, how can we sell them? Let’s lower the price a bit,” said the woman after unloading the three gutted dead pigs, handing the man a 500,000 dong note. Having completed the transaction, the man continued his journey to the house of a man named Thuật at the end of Lỗ Xá village.

When I approached Hoa's slaughterhouse, her husband was busily butchering three dead pigs to put the meat into the refrigerator. The owner had put the legs, heads, and bones separately into plastic bags and then into a Styrofoam box. "Don't worry, sir, if you come here to pick it up, we'll give you a discount. It's all dead pork, but it's still delicious when cooked. I'll sell the one that died a day ago for 40,000 dong/kg. The one that died two days or more for 20,000 dong/kg. Take it home and try it, you'll make a lot of profit," Hoa said, opening the refrigerator to show me the goods.

According to observations, right next to the slaughtering area of ​​Ms. Hoa were four large refrigerators filled with dead pigs. Hoa revealed that half of the dead pigs slaughtered at her slaughterhouse were purchased from farms in Van Giang and Yen My, while the rest were imported from a man named Khanh. “This time, many large slaughterhouses have sprung up, and everyone is rushing to collect the meat. Those of us who slaughter and sell the meat can't keep up, so we have to import more from the larger slaughterhouses. The biggest middleman transporting dead pigs here is the ‘kingpin’ Khanh,” Hoa revealed.

Before I could even get acquainted with "boss Khanh" to get more goods, Hoa enthusiastically said: "Just call 01677016… Just say you're a customer of Mrs. Hoa, she won't answer calls from strangers."

According to what I read in the newspaper.