Hanoi (VNA) - Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen XuanCuong has called on food processors to increase their purchase of pigs and keepthem in frozen storage in order to help farmers reduce inventories and stop theresulting downward price spiral.

He spoke at an urgent meeting in Hanoi on April 24 with feed and foodprocessing firms seeking measures to rescue the pig-farming industry.

Cuong said the Government had helped the industry for 20 years, during whichbusinesses made profits and now they should take responsibility for thefarmers’ plight. “I believe that all businesses can share the difficulties withthe farmers,” said Cuong.

As a first move, Cuong said, firms needed to reduce the price of inputmaterials, such as breeding pigs, feed and veterinary medicine.

The price of live pigs has dropped to a record 20,000-23,000 VND (0.87-1.32 USD)per kilogramme in recent days. The minister said if the price drop continued,most husbandry households, even big farms, would be unable to operate,affecting feed business households too.

According to the ministry, a supply exceeding demand is the main reason for theprice drop. In the last 20 years, the industry’s productivity increased by 20times from 1.8 million tonnes in 1996 to 5.4 million tonnes this year.Meanwhile, people’s daily meals have changed and diversified with various foodsincluding beef, chicken, egg and seafood.

There is also a weakness in the industry’s production organisation andmarketing. Some 45 percent of the industry are pig farms, while the remainderare small farming households.

“Countries in the region, such as Singapore, the Philippines and China, importhigh volumes of pork but Vietnam has not yet entered these markets,” said Le BaLich, Chairman of the Vietnam Feed Association.

At the meeting, representatives of feed companies pledged to support thefarmers in overcoming their difficulties. They will take some actions,including debt rescheduling and increase in frozen storage, and expand the porkmarket.

Vu Anh Tuan, Deputy General Director of C.P Group, said his group wouldimmediately reduce input prices of feed, veterinary medicine and breedinganimals. They had already rented frozen storage to keep pork.

To share difficulties with farmers, he said the company had already cut theprices of feed and breeding animals. The company also planned to build a bigslaughtering house this year.

Representatives of businesses proposed that the ministry temporarily stopimporting pork and its products in order to stabilise the domestic market. Asfor the long term, planning is required for the industry, which should be seenas a conditional business area.

Minister Cuong said the ministry would apply advanced technologies for theindustry in order to raise capacity and reduce price.

He also requested localities to check and limit the opening of new feedprocessing units and restructure production to build an effective andsustainable pig industry.-VNA