Increase in price of animal feed due to dependence on imported raw materials

Talking to us, Mr. Nguyen Tien Manh, owner of a poultry farm in Chuong My district (Hanoi) sighed sadly and said: "Poultry prices have been continuously decreasing recently due to supply in the market. The large scale and impact of the Covid-19 epidemic made transportation difficult, traders were less likely to come and buy. Meanwhile, the price of feed continuously increased, causing many of our farmers, especially poultry farmers, to face many problems. difficulties, even losses".

According to Ms. Tran Ngoc Yen, Director of Analysis Division, Vietnam Market Forecast and Analysis Joint Stock Company (Agromonitor): The increase in the world price of corn (accounting for 40-50% of the proportion of feed) in the world has caused feed to increase. The highest price of corn on the world market in March and April 2021 was $290/ton compared with the July 2020 price of $130/ton. Corn price in July 2021 is at 220 USD/ton. Along with that, the price of soybeans increased by 20-30% and wheat - the feed ingredient in the world - also increased due to a decrease in production in some of the main exporting countries. Along with that, sea freight rates in the world have also increased continuously over the past time. These are the reasons that pushed up domestic feed prices in recent years.

In Vietnam, poultry farming has experienced "hot" growth in the past time, the supply of products has increased, while the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic has reduced demand, plus the processing and slaughtering stages of poultry have been affected. impact on the price of live poultry continued to drop sharply. In the Southeast provinces, the price of white feathered chicken at the end of July and the beginning of August 2021 is only 6,000-7,000 VND/kg (breast chicken).

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Son, Chairman of the Vietnam Poultry Breeding Association said: "The reason why our country's import of feed materials is so large and constantly increasing is that every year, the domestic agricultural industry only has can provide a maximum of 4.5-5 million tons of corn kernels, 4 million tons of bran, 4 million tons of cassava for animal feed, while the annual demand needs 26-27 million tons of all kinds, mainly corn and soybeans. , wheat, animal and vegetable oils (which are not Vietnam's strong crops) When the price of imported feed materials increases, the production cost and the selling price of finished feed immediately increase accordingly. As a result, domestic feed prices are always higher than the world average, making domestically produced meat, eggs and dairy products inferior in price compared to imported goods of the same type.

Although being the leading food producer and exporter in the world, our country's industrial feed industry still has to import 70-85% of raw materials from abroad and every year it increases in both quantity and quality. value. If in 2019, the import turnover of feed materials was 6.862 billion USD, in 2020 it is 7.162 billion USD with a volume of more than 20 million tons. And in the first 5 months of 2021, the import turnover of feed materials was 3.903 billion USD, up 55% over the same period in 2020.

Need to solve the problem of material autonomy

Facing the current situation, according to experts, it is time for Vietnam to have a strategy to develop domestic feed materials in a fundamental and methodical way, in order to reduce dependence on imported raw materials. Accordingly, it is necessary to have many synchronous solutions, one of which is to develop plant varieties applying biotechnology as feed with high yield and yield with the expectation of contributing to reducing dependence on food. import raw materials such as corn - the main ingredient in feed - and lower the cost of domestically produced feed. Mr. Tran Xuan Dinh, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Seed Trade Association said: "In terms of solutions in the coming time, we need to increase the area of ​​biotech corn to supplement and reduce dependence on sources. supply of raw materials imported from abroad.Agriculture experts also suggest taking advantage of by-products in cultivation, production and processing of aquatic products (bagasse, molasses, by-products from pangasius) to feed production and processing.

In addition, livestock households need to cross-link into cooperatives and production associations to buy feed in large quantities directly from production plants, which will reduce costs through intermediaries at all levels. food salesman. In the long term, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should continue to research and implement the policy of converting inefficient agricultural land to planting crops as raw materials for feed production. *

Source: People's Army Newspaper