Vietnam has imported 107,000 tones of meat of various kinds, up by 30.5 per cent against 2010, according to Deputy-Chief of the Husbandry Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

The information was released by the official at a conference on small- and medium- scale domestic animal farms held by the Vietnam Animal Husbandry Science-Technique Association on December 23rd in Ho Chi Minh City.

The official also said that the imports of meat were higher than expected as the prices of meat, especially pork, in the domestic market saw a sharp rise in June and July, which created incentives for meat importers.

He said that Vietnam will neither encourage nor limit businesses to import meat. The domestic market will self-regulate meat import activities in 2012, but the agency may appoint certain importers to import meat in some urgent cases, he added.

The official also admitted that the figure has been undercounted as a large amount of chickens illegally imported from China were excluded from the official figure.   

Source: TBKT

Translated by Thu Nguyen