HANOI: The Vietnam General Administration of Customs has said that in the January-July period, Vietnam imported animal feed and raw materials to produce animal feed worth more than $4 billion.
The domestic livestock industry paid about $1.9 billion to import finished animal feed, up by 1.9% compared to the same period in 2014; $824 million for soybeans, an increase of 20% year on year; and $451 million for maize.
The imports of animals increased strongly while domestic production of this product and the total livestock and poultry in the country were stagnant. The main import markets of Vietnam are Argentina (38%), the US (17.5%); Brazil (7.0%) and China.
The Department of Livestock under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said that the total number of cattle in the first half of 2015 was at a standstill while the poultry population grew only slightly over the same period last year.
Vietnam has imported more animal feed because of a limited domestic supply, not the development of its cattle and poultry. Many small animal feed producers in Vietnam had to shut down since they were unable to compete with foreign firms.
In the first five months of 2015, the output of animal feed in Vietnam was estimated at nearly 6.03 million tons, up about 5% from the same period in 2014.
At the same time, Vietnam imported 5.98 million tons of raw materials to produce animal feed, up by 17.3%, and worth $2.31 billion, up 14.5% year on year.
Nguyen Dang Vang, chairman of the Vietnam Livestock Association, said animal feed in Vietnam was more expensive than the same products in other countries.
The feed market share in Vietnam depends heavily on foreign enterprises which accounts for more than 63% of market supply. However, these enterprises mainly import raw materials from parent companies in Thailand, China, Indonesia, and others.
