Chinese traders back out, pig farmers in trouble

For over a month now, Chinese traders have been buying up pigs in many northern provinces at exorbitant prices, but in recent days they have suddenly closed, causing trouble for pig farmers.

Double the price…

Many villages in Bac Giang are still surprised by the sudden skyrocketing price of pigs over the past month. Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh (Xuan Phu commune, Yen Dung district, Bac Giang province) said that her family had just sold more than a dozen pigs at a price of 57,000 VND/kg, about 20,000 VND/kg higher than before. Notably, traders saw that her family had a herd of piglets about 20 days old, just starting to learn to eat, so they bought them at a price of 1.6 million VND/pig.

Mr. Nguyen Van Xuyen, a trader in the "pig trading village" of Ha My, Chu Dien, Luc Nam, Bac Giang, said that in the past month, China has started to buy all kinds of pigs from Vietnam. China buys all kinds and all at prices 30% higher than the price in the Vietnamese market, that is, about 55,000 - 57,000 VND/kg.

China also buys “ear-lifted” pigs, which are pigs that have just been weaned and started eating, at prices twice as high as before. Therefore, large pig farms in the area cannot meet the demand, so traders have to go to the countryside to “buy up”.

“We had to search the alleys and see if there was a house with pigs for sale and then go in to buy them. In the past month, in Ha My alone, there were about 20-30 trips every day from Lang Son or Quang Ninh to export to China. According to Mr. Xuyen, Chinese traders seemed very eager to buy pigs during this period.

“The Chinese side is willing to lend us money to buy. Some people even said that if we need it, they can lend us tens of billions of dong. Of course, we have to have collateral and they (the Chinese side) still charge about 1.5% interest per day, but when needed, this is an acceptable interest rate, so many people still borrow.”

Traders' trucks carrying pigs are "dead" because China suddenly stopped importing them.

…then suddenly stopped buying

However, the joy was short-lived when China suddenly stopped importing Vietnamese pigs in the past 5 days. On the afternoon of May 11, at the pig gathering point in Ha My village, Chu Dien commune (Luc Nam, Bac Giang), there were still nearly ten trucks of pigs that could not leave.

Truck owners sat in groups of three or five chatting while pig owners were busy spraying water to bathe their pigs. “I was hired by traders here to transport pigs to Lang Son to sell, but I have been here for two days and still cannot leave because of information that trucks transporting pigs are stuck at the border gates,” said a pig truck driver.

Mr. Xuyen sighed: “These days, I don’t want to go buy pigs anymore because there are still two trucks stuck in Lang Son that can’t go. My younger brother is also in Lang Son and informed that there are about 200 trucks of pigs stuck there.” According to Mr. Xuyen, during this period, many households lost billions of dong when China stopped buying.

A trader in Ha My, Mr. Hoang Van Thuan, also said that for many traders in the village, the most “deadly” thing is packing goods from the South. Particularly, traders in Ha My village have about 60 trucks of pigs from the South stuck.

When stuck, traders are forced to consider two options: either wait for China to “open the door” or sell “unbundled” pigs to the market, but both options are currently difficult to implement. Traders are still “locking” pigs in large trucks and every day they can only bathe them to get water into their mouths, but cannot feed or care for them. This also means that pigs quickly lose weight, greatly affecting their value when sold.

In addition, because of the high price of pigs, many families in Bac Giang have decided to invest to increase their herds. Mr. Hoang Van Hoan (Huong Son commune, Lang Giang, Bac Giang) is raising more than 100 pigs on his farm. He said that seeing the price of pigs increase, he also decided to increase his herd to about 40 more pigs, thinking that if the price increased, it would be good.

The price drop has caused losses to the farm, but it is still acceptable. “During the past time, I was happy to see the high price of pigs, but I did not receive any recommendations or information from the authorities. We are currently raising pigs and deciding to increase or decrease the herd based mainly on experience,” said Mr. Hoan.

Authorities… are investigating.

Contacted by phone with Mr. Vu Dinh Phuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Bac Giang, Mr. Phuong said he was in a meeting but after that, the reporter contacted him many times but he did not answer the phone. Mr. Hoang Thanh Van, Director of the Department of Livestock, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the Department is sending people to investigate the unusual purchasing situation of Chinese traders in some northern provinces.

“We have sent a team to investigate this situation and we will have the results in the next few days,” said Mr. Van. When reporters informed about the current situation where China has stopped buying pigs, causing a major impact on livestock farming activities, Mr. Van said that his colleagues are currently investigating and have no results yet. When they do, they will inform you later.

According to Tien Phong