HCM City (VNS/VNA) - More and morebusinesses are exporting livestock and poultry meat, opening up great prospectsfor the livestock sector.

Mavin Group, a joint venture between Australiaand Vietnam, became the first business in Vietnam to export frozen fresh porkto a foreign market when in late May its first batch went to Myanmar.

Mavin and Japanese-invested Sojitz Vietnamannounced late last month they were tying up to export about 26 tonnes offrozen fresh pork to Myanmar every month.

Koyu & Unitek Co Ltd based in the southernprovince of Dong Nai exports poultry meat and processed poultry products toJapan.

Koyu & Unitek said it exports nearly 100tonnes of processed chicken products to Japan every month.

All consignments are quarantined before exportand checked when they enter the Japanese market, and so far all have metJapanese requirements, it said.

Khuu Nhon Hieu, the company’s director, saidlast year a chicken processing line was set up in Dong Nai province with acapacity of 110 tonnes per month.

It produces fried chicken products. Demand forgrilled and boiled chicken products is also growing in Japan.

So the company installed two more productionlines and got Japan’s veterinary agency to inspect and issue eligibilitycertificates to export to that country from June.

The three lines have a total capacity of 330tonnes a month, and the company plans to invest in more new plants to increaseits capacity to more than 1,000 tonnes per month to meet demand from Japan, Hieusaid.

Other animal and poultry processing enterprisesare also preparing to export products soon.

C.P. Vietnam Corporation is building a modernfactory in Binh Phuoc province to make chicken products for export to Japan.

It is a closed-chain production line from producingchicken feed to breeding chickens and slaughtering and processing them.

In the 250-million-USD first phase, the companywill raise 50 million chickens a year.

The company said it had signed export deals withmany foreign customers for animal and poultry products even before building theplant.

Pham Thanh Hung, deputy director of Ba HuanJoint Stock Company, said the company is seeking to export processed chickenproducts to Japan. It would be done quickly since the company’s qualitystandards meet export requirements, he said.

The demand for pork and chicken products in manymarkets such as the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the EU is large, but onlyforeign-invested enterprises in Vietnam have so far exported to them.

The director of a poultry breeding company in DongNai province said his company only supplies live chickens to export companiesto get experience. In order to export directly, it needs to invest in a closedproduction chain and market research, and so remains apprehensive, he said.-VNS/VNA