Pig repopulation sluggish due to shortage of piglets

The Department of Statistics of Dong Nai Province informed that by the end of June this year, the total pig herd of the province merely reached 2.03 million pigs, down 18 percent compared to that before the African swine fever epidemic.

Currently, 407 pig-farming facilities in the province have repopulated their pig herds with a total number of more than 277,000 pigs, achieving more than 59 percent of the plan. Therefore, the target, in which the total pig herd will reach 2.3 million pigs by the end of the third quarter and 2.5 million pigs by the end of this year, set by Dong Nai Province will probably be unfeasible.

According to pig farmers, the biggest challenge in pig repopulation and pig herd expansion is the difficulty in the source of piglets. In the past months, the price of piglets has been at a high level of above VND3.2 million per seven-kilogram piglet while the price of breeding pigs was three times higher than before. Piglets currently are provided by foreign livestock corporations. If farmers want to buy piglets, they must also buy feed from the supplier while many farmers do not agree with this condition.

Mr. Nguyen Truong Giang, Director of the Department of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary of Dong Nai Province, said that the provincial agriculture and rural development sector informed localities to register the demand for piglets and based on that, the sector has worked with large companies providing piglets to connect piglet supply to farmers. However, piglet suppliers currently only give priority to large farms that ensure biosecurity according to the provincial animal husbandry plan so small pig-farming households are still unable to access this source of piglets.

(Source:SGGP)