October 29, 2008
High animal feed prices in Vietnam slash farmers' profits
Animal feed prices remain high, although the cost of input materials has dropped by 40-45 percent since August and would continue to fall till end of the year, said the chairman of the Viet Nam Feed Association, Le Ba Lich.
Pham Duc Binh, general director of Thanh Binh Joint-Stock Company, said that the prices reflected the use of previously purchased raw materials.
Lich attributed the price drops to good harvests worldwide and a reduction in transport charges.
At the end of last month, the association called on animal feed producers to cut prices to help reduce costs to animal breeders.
Vuong Quang Dung, director of the Vuong Hung Animal Husbandry Company, said animal breeders had suffered heavy financial losses, because of higher feed costs as well as lower meat prices.
Breeders have been reducing their output. The price of live pigs has now fallen to VND32,000-34,000 a kg compared to VND46,000 a kg in June.
Van Duc Muoi, deputy general director of
Vissan, one of the leading companies in processing and trading frozen meat and meat-related foods, said pig breeders were losing money, as they could only turn a profit, if prices reached VND39,000 a kg.
VND1 = US$0.0000596 (October 29, 2008)