Foreign beef favored in Vietnam, bad news for domestic farmers

Vietnam has become a new attractive destination for beef exporters from all over the world.

Vietnam imported 24,000 tons of beef in the first 8 months

A report from the General Department of Customs (GDC) showed increasingly high number of imports of beef recently. In the first eight months of 2018, Vietnam imported 24,000 tons of beef of different kinds, worth $91 million.

As such, the average import price was $3.78 (VND87,000) per kilogram, not including tax. The US and Australia are the two biggest beef suppliers, of which the latter has higher export prices.

However, the owner of a beef import company said the import prices were inaccurate, explaining that importers might declare an import price lower than the actual price so as to avoid tax. This is attributed to the high tax rates of 7-18 percent on beef imports.

As countries tend to install more technical barriers to restrict imports and the US-China trade war is escalating, foreign products are trying to find way to penetrate the Vietnamese market, which is considered easy to please.

As countries tend to install more technical barriers to restrict imports and the US-China trade war is escalating, foreign products are trying to find way to penetrate the Vietnamese market, which is considered easy to please.

The Livestock Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) said Vietnam now has 5.4 million cows, down by 14.7 percent compared with 10 years ago (2008), but slaughtered meat increased by 43.4 percent thanks to increased productivity. This still cannot satisfy domestic demand.

This explains why in recent years, Vietnam has had to import live cows from Australia through official channels, and from neighboring countries across border gates, and slaughtered meat from the US & Australia.

It is estimated that Vietnam imports 200,000 Australian cows a year.

Hoang, the importer of beef from the US and India, said he imported 50 tons of beef in 2017. Meanwhile, imports in the first nine months of the year alone far exceeded imports in the whole year of 2017.

“The supply of Vietnamese beef has decreased, therefore, the price is high, from VND188,000 per kilogram. American beef has higher quality and lower price, are conquering Vietnamese hearts,” he said.

While Vietnamese beef is hovering around VND250,000-300,000 per kilogram, the average import price is VND86,000-87,000 per kilogram.

The low prices of imports have raised concern that imports have low quality and are near expiration. However, the Department of Animal Health affirmed that all food imports must go through examinations by relevant ministries before reaching consumers.

Citing the current laws, Dam Xuan Thanh of the Livestock Agency said meat imports must satisfy technical requirements in farming and slaughtering. The imports also must not come from territories where epidemics have broken out.