Animal feed prices continue to rise, farmers in distress

CP Vietnam, the country’s biggest animal feed producer, adjusted the prices of its fish feed products up by VND400 per kilogram Monday.

Last month it had increased pig and compound feed by VND300.

Other manufacturers like CJ Vina Agri and GreenFeed Vietnam raised prices by VND300-500 last Friday, to around VND11,000-13,000 per kilogram (US$1=VND22,800).

They cited rising production costs since the world’s biggest exporters of raw materials for animal feed production, South America, Russia and Ukraine, have been hit by adverse weather and conflict.

Vietnam imported around $551 million worth of animal feed and raw materials in January-February, mainly from Argentina, Brazil and the U.S.

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said last month that feed prices had risen by 25-40 percent since the beginning of 2022.

With feed accounting for 65-70 percent of livestock farmers’ costs, the price hikes have caused them huge losses.

Giau, a pig farmer in the southern Long An province, said he is struggling to break even despite selling pigs on the hoof at VND54,000 per kilogram and having his own brood animals stock.

“Costs have risen to VND54,000-60,000 per kilogram.”

Hoa, another farmer in Dong Nai who buys brood animals, claimed she is losing VND500,000-700,000 on every pig she sells due to the high feed costs, and has reduced her scale to reduce losses.

Tien has called for producing domestic alternatives and expanding the fodder farming area in the country.