It has prepared the necessary legal steps to ship about 3,465 tonnes of the meat to Vietnam through 15 domestic importers, according to a report by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD)’s Department of Animal Health.
Of this volume, 1,490 tonnes have arrived at HCM City’s Cat Lai and Phuoc Long ports and the port of Hai Phong earlier this month while the remainder is on the way.
The Russian firm is looking forward to higher export levels in forthcoming years.
The department estimated that as of March 15, Vietnam had imported over 25.29 tonnes of both unprocessed and processed pork, representing a rise of 205 percent over the same period last year.
Pork imports should make up for the shortage in supply and skyrocketing pork prices caused by the African swine fever.
Pork was mostly imported from Canada (29.35 percent), Germany (19.43 percent), Polland (11.83 percent), Brazil (9.98 percent) and the US (5.53 percent).
Recently, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked the MARD and relevant agencies to implement measures to lower pork prices.
The MARD asked big husbandry companies to reduce live hog prices to VND70,000 (US$3). If pork prices are not lowered to the requested levels, the ministry said it would have to increase imports in an effort to reduce the price.
Pork prices have generally been on a downward trend but remained at high levels in some northern provinces like Hung Yen, Lao Cai and Phu Tho, with live hog prices at around VND83,000 per kilo.
Vietnam was also strengthening pig reproduction with a focus on ensuring biosafety standards. As a result, pork supply was expected to increase from this month.
From the beginning of the year, Vietnam also increased imports of buffalo meat (19,356 tonnes, up by 128 percent), beef (14,160 tonnes, up 217 percent) and poultry meat (48,300 tonnes, up 86 percent) as substitutes to pork – normally the most popular meat in the Vietnamese daily diet.
