Vietnam is ready to move from pork production to the production of other types of meat, such as beef and poultry, to cover the shortage of pork, generated by a massive reduction in the national pig head after an ASF outbreak.
Now per capita consumption of beef in Vietnam is about 3 kg, but this may soon change, Tong Xuan Chinh, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture, says. However, local beef will be difficult to compete with well-known products from the United States, Japan or Australia, which is already entrenched in the retail and hospitality industry. Expensive restaurants in Vietnam often choose Kobe beef or premium American beef.
"Beef, which is imported from Australia and the USA, is available in most supermarkets, retail stores, in traditional markets, so it will be quite difficult for local meat to compete with it," Chinh says. Local authorities intend to stimulate the livestock industry and investment in the processing sector so that domestic beef can compete with imported products and reduce production costs, Nguyen Quoc Toan, director of the Vietnam ministry's Agro Processing and Market Development Authority, explains.
In the past 12 months, Vietnam imported 19,000 Australian livestock. Since February, when the first ASF outbreak was registered in the country, more than 2.5 million pigs have been destroyed due to illness. Pork is the main meat for Vietnam, although the poultry sector is constantly expanding in this market through joint ventures with foreign partners.
Source: meatinfo.ru.
