Thai Binh: Animal feed prices rise sharply while live hog prices drop

Mr. Vu Van Chinh, a pig farmer with 50 sows, 150 porkers and 50 suckling pigs in his ranch shared that on average, over 800 bags of bran are consumed per month. The price of each bag today compared to July 2020 has increased from 50,000 to 70,000 VND, leading to the rise of breeding cost to about 50 million VND/month. The inverse ratio between feed prices and live hog prices has considerably affected production efficiency.

“Pig farming is under a lot of pressure. In addition to the fear of disease, it is difficult since the price of animal feed has increased, while the price of live pigs for slaughter is decreasing. Therefore, if you do not properly invest in a closed and methodical way, it is likely to lose some money. With the current situation, livestock farms that can supply their own breeding stock can still make a little profit, but households who have to buy breeding pigs will suffer losses if live hog prices continuously remain or decrease”, Mr. Chinh added.

Thanks to the investment in building a closed barn system to help regulate the temperature, along with strictly apply disease prevention and control measures, Mr. Nguyen Dac Tuong's family farm in Trung village, Dong Phuong commune (Dong Hung, Thai Binh) has not been affected with African swine fever for nearly 2 years. His farm is going to sell 300 slaughters in nearly one month. However, according to initial calculations, Mr. Tuong lost nearly 300,000 VND for each pig.

“Live hog prices have started to decrease since the beginning of 2021. Super lean pigs from 90,000 VND/kg are now only 57,000 - 58,000 VND/kg, while hybrid pigs are only 50,000 VND/kg, which is recorded as the lowest price in a year”, Mr. Tuong shared. “Meanwhile, from then until now, the bran suppliers have continuously increased their prices. Previously, each bag of bran (25kg) was only 270,000 VND, but today it has increased to 330,000 VND. The cost for raising one pig to the day of release (110kg) is about 6,650,000 VND, of which 2,850,000 VND for breed; 3,300,000 VND for brans and feeds; 500,000 VND to pay for labor, electricity, water, veterinary medicine etc,. If I sell my pigs for 58,000 VND/kg, I will lose 270,000 VND for each pig. Currently, the price of piglets has "cooled down" to only nearly 2 million VND per head,  but I have to consider carefully about re-herding. If the price of livestock bran continues to rise, it is a must to reduce the number of pigs to limit risks and losses. Farmers like us hope that the authorities will soon have solutions to lower the price of animal feed, so that we can focus on our production without having any concern.

This situation was caused by the phenomenon of re-herding right after the outbreak of African swine fever. In addition, due to the impact of Covid 19, workplace canteens stopped working, which led to the decline of demand for pork consumption. While the price of live pigs for slaughter fell sharply, the price of feed continued to soar.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong, owner of an animal feed store in Quynh Phu district said: “The price of livestock bran started to increase from November 2020. Up to now, some companies have even increased their products’ prices 9 times, and massive surges were witnessed in the period between April and June. It is forecasted that there will be 2 more increases this July”.

Today, the province's pig herd has reached 674,700 heads, up 3.5% over the same period. Output of live hogs for slaughter in the first 6 months is estimated at 76,000 tons, up 2% over the same period in 2020. To overcome this situation, the Agriculture sector has directed localities to focus on preventing and controlling diseases affectively, along with instructing farmers to apply biosafety husbandry measures, in which the source of imported piglets for rearing must ensure its origin without being affected to any kind of diseases; Fully vaccinated; Regularly cleaned and disinfected barns in order to minimize risks and losses in the breeding process. In the long term, it is necessary to change the mindset of livestock production to the livestock economy; developing towards increasing breeding of high-yield and high-quality breeds; expanding the mode of industrial livestock farming on a farm scale, linked with market demand. In the meantime, it is necessary to focus on leading and directing the construction of key regions/communes for livestock development, branding, and traceability of livestock products.

Author Ngan Huyen - Thai Binh News - Translated by Vinoda.vn