Traders squeeze prices, people invite each other to "touch" pigs

(Baonghean.vn) - Pork prices have dropped sharply, so many families in Quynh Luu have slaughtered their own pigs to sell, which people consider the optimal solution to release the herd at the present time.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tam in Hamlet 1, Tan Son Commune said: Each batch his family usually raises 150 pigs for meat, but never before has the pork market price fallen as miserably as this year. Currently, in his barn there are 60 pigs, reaching a weight of 100 - 110 kg/pig, each day he has to spend up to 1.5 million VND on feed. The price of pigs is low, raising them is a loss, but selling them is even more of a loss, so Mr. Tam had to choose to slaughter the pigs himself and sell them to people in the area. According to the family's calculations, each pig loses about 1.5 million VND from buying the breed to the feed, not to mention the cost of taking care of them for 5 months.

Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tam's family in Hamlet 1, Tan Son Commune currently has 60 pigs, weighing 100 - 110 kg each, but has not found a market yet. Photo by Hong Dien

Not being completely dependent on traders, many households have had to slaughter their own pigs to sell at the market or pool their money together to salvage whatever money they can. Ms. Dau Thi Lai's family in Hamlet 5, Quynh Dien Commune has 20 pigs that have been past the selling period for more than 2 months now. Previously, she could sell them for 4.5 - 5 million VND per pig weighing 70 - 90 kg, but now she can only sell them for more than 2 million VND. Feeling sorry for the money and effort spent, she invited her brothers and neighbors to slaughter the pigs to share. If the pig is small, she divides it into 6 portions, if the pig is big, it is into 8 portions, and for each portion, the buyer spends 290 thousand VND to get 8 - 9 kg of meat and ribs. This method helps her family earn an additional income of 200 - 250 thousand VND compared to selling to traders.

Up to this point, the whole Quynh Luu district still has about 4,000 pigs in farms, ranches, and small-scale households, weighing from 50 - 100 kg/pig, most concentrated in the communes of Quynh Tan, Quynh Thang, Quynh Tam, Quynh Luong, Quynh Yen...

Many households in Quynh Dien commune slaughter pigs themselves and sell them at retail locations in the commune. Photo: Hong Dien

The total pig herd is still large, traders are limiting purchases, so the price of live pigs continues to fall deeply everywhere without any signs of recovery, causing great losses to farmers. In this situation, implementing the direction of Quynh Luu district, the People's Committees of 33 communes and towns have requested departments, agencies and mass organizations to actively propagate and mobilize households, businesses and slaughterhouses in the area to increase the amount of pork purchased, slaughtered, processed and frozen. In addition, people are encouraged to regularly raise pigs to help reduce the total herd for farming households.

Mr. Dau Phi Chau - Chairman of Tan Son Commune People's Committee said: With the current price of live pigs, according to the calculations of the households, each pig loses at least 1 - 1.5 million. Based on that situation and after receiving instructions from the District People's Committee, the Commune People's Committee issued an official dispatch to the whole commune to propagate and mobilize households, groups, brothers, relatives and friends to buy a pig for slaughter. That also partly solves the difficulty of consumption of households.

Red Face

Quynh Luu Station