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Animal feed imports skyrocket
Imports of animal feed and raw materials required to make animal feed were worth around US$200 million last month, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
The total value of such imports in the first quarter rose to US$613 million, 133 per cent higher than in the same period last year.
Phan Hong Lien of the Ha Noi-based Viet Nam Market Forecast and Analysis Joint Stock Company said the animal feed industry imported most of its input needs.
Dry soybean cake and fishmeal have the highest import rates, with the industry importing up to 90 per cent of its needs, followed by corn and various kinds of mash.
"The domestic supply of animal feed inputs is small and not stable," Lien said.
Last year, the country spent more than $2.1 billion on importing animal feed and inputs, including more than $1.5 billion on dry soybean cake, corn, and fishmeal, items that can be produced in the country.
Le Ba Lich, Chairman of the Viet Nam Animal Feed Association, said with Tuoi Tre newspaper (Youth) that the country still depended on imports because there was no investment strategy for producing them at home.
"There are no detailed zoning plans by the Government for developing the animal feed inputs industry. "No animal feed company has set up its own raw material-producing zones like sugar and paper companies."
The country has around 1 million ha under corn with a total annual output of 4 million tonnes. Of this, 500,000 to 800,000 tonnes are used for food and production of ethanol and 1 million for backyard animals, leaving around 2.2 million tonnes for the animal feed industry.
So 800,000 to 1.1 million tonnes of corn have to be imported every year for making animal feed.
As for soybean, the output is not even enough for making tofu and soy milk for domestic consumption.
The country has only around 250,000ha under soybean and produces 300,000 tonnes a year.
Hoang Kim Giao, Head of the ministry's Animal Husbandry Department, said due to the rapid development of the animal husbandry sector in recent years, demand for animal feed hadbeen growing at 15-17 per cent annually, and supply of inputs had not kept pace with this rate.
By 2020 demand for animal feed was expected to rise to around 15 million tonnes, he said, adding 50 per cent of the inputs would have to be imported then.
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