It has prepared 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 the 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 are on the way.
    |
 |
|
Nearly 15,000 tonnes of pork from Russia arrive in Vietnam. (Photo for illustration: tintucvietnam.vn) |
The Russian firm is looking forwards higher exports in the following years.
The department estimated that as of March 15, Vietnam had imported over 25.29 tonnes of pork and processed products of the meat, representing a rise of 205 percent over the same period last year.
Pork imports aimed to make up for the shortage in supply and rein in skyrocketing pork prices caused by the African swine fever.
Pork was mainly 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 price to 70,000 USD (3 USD). If the pork prices were not lowered to the expected levels, the ministry said it would have to increase imports in an effort to cool off the prices.
Pork prices were on a downward trend but remained at high levels in some northern provinces like Hung Yen, Lao Cai and Phu Tho, with live hog price at around 83,000 VND per kilo for live hog.
Vietnam was also strengthening pig reproduction with the focus on ensuring biosafety standards. As a result, pork supply was expected to start to increase from this month.
From the beginning of this year, Vietnam also increased imports of buffalo meat (with 19,356 tonnes, up by 128 percent), beef (14,160 tonnes, up 217 percent) and poultry meat (48,300 tonnes, up by 86 percent) as substitutes to pork - the most popular kind of meat in Vietnamese daily diet.
Source: VNA