Diseases, rising costs wipe out pig farmers
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High interest rates, epidemics, and rising feed prices are making life tough for pig farmers in the southeastern region.
K., who owns a farm in Dong Nai with 2,000 sows, says the profession has never been as hard as it is today though pork prices are going up.
“The price of pigs is increasing at a slower rate than that of animal feed,” he explains.
“Since 90 percent of inputs for animal feed, such as soybean and corn, is imported, any change in global prices immediately affects the local price.”
In 2008 K. established a modern pig farm with an investment of VND14 billion (US$666,000), which included a bank loan under the government’s demand stimulus program.
He hoped to make a profit of VND100 million a month, but the blue-ear epidemic last year put paid to that.
The price of meat on the hoof fell by VND26,000 to VND30,000 for a kilogram, causing him losses of VND400,000 for every pig he sold.
To cut his losses, K. had to reduce the size of his herd by selling breeding stock for low prices.
Then the interest rate on his bank loan doubled to 1.6 percent a month.
K. could no longer repay his debt and had to sell his land. But with the pig-farming in the doldrums, the price of pig farms too fell. “When pig prices were high, people offered VND28 billion but now I can only get VND16 billion,” he laments.
With many farmers wiped out, the number of heads of pig in Dong Nai has fallen by nearly 30 percent.
Many farms have reduced their scale or stopped farming pigs. Nguyen Tri Cong, owner of Tri Cong Pig Farm, says even large farms cannot survive without government support.
15% loss Van Duc Muoi, general director of food company Vissan Ltd, says animal husbandry in Vietnam faces serious risks due to poor disease-control capability.
Veteran animal farmer Tran Quang Trung, who has a farm with 1,000 pigs in Dong Nai’s Thong Nhat District, says veterinary and epidemiology standards are poor, allowing epidemics to become widespread and more severe.
Even four or five years ago animal losses in pig farming was not more than 5 percent.
“Last year my farm was free from epidemics,” Trung says.
“I myself raised and slaughtered the pigs to supply pork to wholesale markets but still made a loss of VND1.2 billion. Other farms incurred bigger losses.”
In the last few years, blue-ear pig disease has broken out every year in many provinces but authorities only culled pigs in epidemic areas. “That is a way to destroy the raisers, not the epidemic,” says a farm owner.
The best way to contain the epidemic, according to many pig farmers, is by using vaccines but it is not always possible to vaccinate a large herd since the vaccines are imported.
Certain vaccines, which are distributed only by veterinary agencies, are usually unavialble.
“The foot-and-mouth epidemic has spread to many places but when I asked to buy (vaccines) at a veterinary agency they said they were unavailable,” says B., who owns a farm with more than 3,000 pigs in Dong Nai.
“So how can we prevent the epidemic now?”
Feed prices keep rising
The relentless rise in feed prices is a major cause of concern for pig farmers. In the last 12 months the prices of some feed inputs like corn, soybean, and fish powder have risen by more than 30 percent.
According to the Vietnam Animal Feed Association, feed prices keep rising because Vietnam has to import 55-60 percent of inputs like corn, wheat, soybean, fish powder, bone, and meat powder.
Feed accounts for 70 percent of farmers’ costs and its prices are also affected by high interest rates, freight, exchange rates, and other factors.
Businesses fear feed prices will rise further soon since the cost of other imputs like power and gasoline have increased.
