Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc suggests measures to bring pork prices below 60,000 VND per kg
If businesses try to push up pork prices, the Prime Minister said he would increase imports to reduce prices.
Currently, the production cost of each kilogram of pork fluctuates between 35,000 and 40,000 VND, but the selling price of live pigs is still around 72,000 and 85,000 VND per kilogram. Therefore, at the meeting on the afternoon of March 20, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc requested the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to take measures to bring the price of pork down to below 60,000 VND.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc acknowledged that the high price of pork after Tet has affected people's lives and increased the consumer price index (CPI). This item currently accounts for more than 50% of the basket of goods used to calculate the CPI, according to the General Statistics Office.
To reduce pork prices, the important measure according to the Prime Minister is to increase supply by promoting the recovery of the pig herd of over 32 million pigs, creating favorable conditions for farms, corporations, and livestock households such as land rental prices, bank loans, etc. At the same time, overcoming intermediaries, purchasing, and slaughtering, especially slaughterhouses. "This stage is very complicated, in fact, farmers and buyers suffer losses, while those in the middle benefit," the Prime Minister commented.
If businesses deliberately raise prices, the Prime Minister said the Government will decide to increase pork imports from other countries to reduce prices.
According to the report of the Ministry of Finance, the market price level in the first quarter is on an upward trend. CPI in January increased by 1.23% compared to December 2019, decreased by 0.17% in February but the average for the two months still increased by 5.91%. This has had a great impact on controlling the price level in the first quarter and the whole year of 2020.
Currently, each kilogram of live pig in the North fluctuates between 82,000 - 85,000 VND, in the Central region 72,000 - 85,000 VND, and in the South 75,000 - 81,000 VND. The price of live pig increased again in the first two weeks of March. The reason, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, is that African swine fever has reduced the supply of piglets, high prices have pushed up production costs and meat trading.
In addition, in the first week of March, due to increased demand from traders, some livestock farms used the excuse of not having enough weight to sell, limiting sales to wait for prices to increase. At the same time, the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic also made people worried about switching to consuming more pork, or the trend of buying and hoarding food, causing prices of this item to increase.
