HANOI: Vietnamese poultry producers are struggling to compete with cheap chicken imports, after the country increased international trade.
That chicken legs shipped from the US have been widely sold at less than $1 a kilogram in Vietnam has sent a shockwave through the local poultry and livestock industries, reported IntellAsia.net.
Vietnam imported nearly $54 million worth of chicken products in the first five months of this year, equalling 52 per cent of the full-year imports in 2014, according to the latest customs data.
The US market accounted for 65 per cent of the five-month import value, or $34.8 million, and American chicken is the cheapest among Vietnam’s poultry meat suppliers.
While frozen chicken wings from Brazil and Argentina are imported at $1.9 and $2.1 a kilogram, respectively, the rate is only $1 a kilogram for the US products, according to customs figures.
Chicken legs are shipped from the US at only $0.9 a kilogram, compared to $2.1 a kilogram from Lithuania.
The price of the US chicken legs is as cheap as vegetables, which no local meat suppliers are able to compete with, the director of a poultry company in the southern province of Dong Nai told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper last week.
This emphasises a previous forecast that the poultry and livestock sectors will struggle to survive when dirt-cheap imported pork, beef and chicken are the top choice for local consumers as soon as many free trade agreements Vietnam has signed or is about to reach take full effect.
This reminds both those operating in the local sector and consumers that all pork, beef and chicken imports are cheaper than domestic products.
