|
Swine flu outbreak makes imported pork a harder sell
Imported pork, already selling slowly because it is strange to the Vietnamese palate, has become unsalable after people learned of the swine flu outbreak.
A director of a HCMC company that imports meat and seafood, including pork from the US, Canada and Australia, said that his company imported a consignment of pork at the end of 2008, but only 50% of the meat been sold so far.
Requesting anonymity, he said that sales have been slow because Vietnamese consumers do not like imported meat. The company has had to reduce the price of the imported pork by VND10,000/kg than its cost, but still has difficulty clearing its inventory. Now, as customers hear the news about the swine flu in the US and Mexico, the meat is almost impossible to sell.
Staff of supermarkets in HCM City said that though it’s clearly written on the packages that the imported meat entered Vietnam at the end of the last year, long before the swine flu outbreak, consumers still shy away from the imported meat.
“I have sometimes purchased pork imported from Australia to make some western dishes. After I heard that people in some countries have died because of the swine flu, I quit buying imported products, as I think I will not enjoy eating them,” said Bich Ha, a housewife in an upscale section of HCM City City.
Other housewives who sometimes purchase imported pork to vary the family diet are also avoiding the imported pork.
Tran Thanh Thuy, Assistant to General Director of the Metro Supermarts, said that the chain’s latest imports of pork meat were in November 2008. The supermart chain has put further imports on hold because of the slow sale of the products. The imported pork at the Metro stores is from Canada, and has a shelf life of one year from production.
Other companies that have taken a chance on marketing importing pork are now trying hard to find buyers. Especially, they have to discount heavily the meat that is nearing its ‘do not sell’ date or sell it dirt cheap to catering companies. Some of the importers are unloading stocks at half their import price.
According to Pham Van Minh, who owns an HCM City-based meat business, pork imports began a year ago when the price of many commodities skyrocketed. Domestic pork products reached VND 50,000 per kilogram last April. The sharply higher price of pork and temporary shortages prompted several companies to order pork from the US, Australia and Canada for domestic sale.
“However, the sale of the imported products has been going more slowly than expected,” Minh continued. “At first, the pork was offered at VND 60,000 per kilogram, but the price has been sliding. Imported pork meat is now selling at VND 30,000 per kilogram only, but sales are still very slow.”
Big C and Maximark supermart chain representatives told VietnamNet that they are not selling imported pork, nor do they have plans to import those products now, especially when the swine flu epidemic has broken out.
The Hanoi City Health Department yesterday afternoon checked pork meat imported by Metro Thang Long supermart, especially from countries reporting cases of swine flu. In March, the supermarket imported 13,000 tonnes of pork from the US and Canada.
Le Anh Tuan, Director of the Hanoi Healthcare Department, said that the examination is only a precaution. “The World Health Organisation and the Ministry of Health have not made any recommendations about the link between pork and swine flu. However, in order to ensure food hygiene, people should eat well-done meat,” Tuan said
VietNamNet, VNE
|
