Control on pork smuggling strengthened in Southern, Central Highlands provinces

The Vietnam Directorate of Market Surveillance under the Ministry of Industry and Trade has recently issued the official dispatch No.2344/TCQLTT-THKHTC instructing provincial market surveillance departments to strengthen control on pork smuggling.

Particularly, it ordered market surveillance departments of ten provinces, including Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Long An, Dong Thap, An Giang and Kien Giang to increase inspection and control on trafficking and transporting of smuggled pigs and pork products. At the border area of these provinces, market surveillance authority needs to actively build solutions to cooperate with border guards, the customs and the police to implement well the instruction of higher authority.

In domestic market, market surveillance authority needs to strengthen cooperation with traffic police to inspect and prevent trafficking and transporting of smuggled pigs and pork products.

In related news, according to Mr. Nguyen Huy Dang, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Hanoi City, the city currently has the second largest pig herd in the country with around 1.9 million pigs. Up to now, African swine fever has not recurred at 300 communes, wards and towns for 30 days, accounting for 67 percent of total African-swine-fever infected places.

According to statistics, average demand for pork of Hanoi is around 600 tons of pork per day. However, Mr. Nguyen Huy Dang affirmed that the city will not face serious shortage of pork during Tet holidays like other provinces as most large pig-farming enterprises and farms have managed to maintain fairly large pig herds and farming is quite steady.