Export of livestock products grew impressively

Vietnam's livestock product exports increased nearly 44% in the first five months of the year. Photo: Nguyen Thanh

Selling feathers earns tens of millions of US dollars

According to the latest statistics of MARD, from the beginning of the year to the end of May, Vietnam's livestock product exports reached US$166 million, up nearly 44% over the same period last year.

Besides the common export livestock products such as: pork, poultry meat, salted eggs, honey, bird's nest, silk, milk and dairy products, recently, Vietnam has also promoted the export of feathers and achieved significant value.

According to the Department of Animal Health (MARD), after agreeing with Vietnam on the feather export business certificate in January 2020, there have been 20 Vietnamese enterprises exporting feathers to the Chinese market. The Department of Animal Health has also successfully registered an account on the EU's traceability system to support feather exporters to the EU market.

In 2020, Vietnamese enterprises exported 10,000 tons of feathers, earning more than US$40 million. Of which, 8,000 tons were exported to China. Since the beginning of the year, enterprises have exported 5,000 tons of feathers, earning more than US$20 million. China is still Vietnam’s largest importer of feathers with an output of about 4,000 tons.

Nguyen Van Long, Deputy Director of the Department of Animal Health, said importing countries currently had high requirements for exported feather products in storage, which meet the standards of turbidity and oxygen consumption. Additionally, feathers must be taken from healthy poultry in disease-free areas without impurities.

Regarding livestock production, in the first months of this year, the continuous increase in the price of animal feed has had a great impact on the whole industry, especially supply.

Due to increased production costs, farmers are not profitable and reduce production. Moreover, the increase in feed costs makes producers tend to consume products in small weight such as selling small pigs, promoting export of suckling pigs, which will affect the supply in the long run.

However, according to Nguyen Xuan Duong, former acting director of the Department of Livestock Production, these problems do not pose a high risk to the livestock export market. That's because the proportion of exported livestock products compared to consumption in the domestic market is very small. Furthermore, export livestock products in recent years have grown well in main markets.

Building national livestock products

Long said that to export animal products to other countries, Vietnam must comply with international regulations, including regulations of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

The Department of Animal Health has been conducting negotiations with other countries related to the export of animal products. By the end of May, Vietnam has 2,288 facilities, closed production chains and disease-free zones in 54 provinces and cities. However, to be able to export, the products must be in the OIE’s disease-free areas. Currently, the Department of Animal Health is coordinating with localities to upgrade disease-free areas according to Vietnamese standards to OIE standards.

Leaders of the Department of Animal Health suggested that localities and cities should have plans to build disease-free breeding areas; in which, the distribution of livestock products, for example, which areas focus on raising chickens, or which areas focus on raising pigs should be paid attention to. “More importantly, it is necessary to strictly control the area to ensure disease safety," said Long.

The representative of the Department of Livestock Production said to promote the consumption of livestock products as well as promote exports in the future, Vietnam needs to strongly develop some products, such as pork, chicken, and poultry eggs, into national products.

For bird's nest products, some agricultural experts believed that it is necessary to assess the potential and status of the bird's nest farming industry in accordance with natural conditions, investment ability, and its consuming markets; simultaneously, build and develop bird's nest into a national product; and implement solutions to accelerate the official export clearance of bird's nest products to potential markets, especially the Chinese market.

For honey products, MARD, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, carefully prepares the contents for the anti-dumping lawsuit against Vietnam’s honey products in the US market, ensuring the best interests of Vietnam’s beekeepers and honey exporters.

In the future, the Department of Livestock Production will coordinate with international partners to research and develop standards and technical regulations in the management and quality control of livestock products to meet domestic consumption and export demand.