Animal feed imports soar in first two months

March 17, 2021 | 12:11

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In the first two months of this year, the total import turnover for animal feed and materials reached $650 million, signifying an increase of 26.2 per cent on-year, according to statistics published by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

animal feed imports soar in first two months

Animal feed imports far outweigh domestic products

While Vietnam's agricultural production and livestock sectors have been growing from strength to strength, it has been largely ignoring securing local material sources to produce animal feed. Thus, about 70-80 per cent of materials are imported from overseas. The import turnover of these goods ranked first among the import goods in the agricultural sector.

The reasons for this are the lack of supply sources and the higher price of domestic materials compared to import goods.

In 2020, Vietnam’s total import turnover of these goods was $3.84 billion, up 3.75 per cent on-year, while export turnover was only $800 million.

The two main import markets of Vietnam are Brazil and Argentina with sweet corn ($584 million)in 2020 and animal feed ($391 million).

The lack of proactivity in meeting the demand for these materials opens the industry up to potential price fluctuations.

In general, animal feed makes up 70 per cent of the production cost of livestock, thus an increase in material prices will push the price of domestic livestock products over imported products.

Statistics published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development showed that Vietnam currently has 265 animal feed manufacturing factories, 85 of which are invested by foreign enterprises.

By Ha Vy

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