As the Covid-19 pandemic has heavily affected local animal feed manufacturers and disrupted the import of raw materials, Hanoi’s mayor Nguyen Duc Chung has asked relevant departments to submit to the government a proposal to reduce import tax on ingredient feed.
At a meeting on April 21 to discuss solutions to animal feed businesses’ problems chaired by Hanoi’s mayor Nguyen Duc Chung, local firms said in the first three months, the prolonged African swine fever caused a reduction of nearly 32% in the pig herd compared to the same period in 2019, while pig feed production accounts for 60% of their production. Since early 2020, the outbreak of Covid-19 has disrupted the import of feed ingredients while prices of imported raw materials have increased by 15–30%.
Speaking at the meeting, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Chu Phu My said that due to the effects of Covid-19 pandemic, the number of businesses that produce and trade animal feed in Hanoi has decreased sharply. As of March, there are 31 manufacturers and 1,096 dealers in the city, down 20.5% and 5.5%, respectively, compared to the same period in 2019.
Vu Anh Tuan, deputy general director of CP Vietnam Livestock JSC, said that the company’s factory has a designed annual output of 720,000 tons, but is operating at a capacity of 600,000 tons. Meanwhile, the factory owned by Tan Phuong Dong Co., Ltd. has an annual capacity of 75,000 tons, but currently only runs at 40-50% of its full capacity.
To support animal feed businesses, Hanoi's mayor Chung said that the city’s authorities would ease businesses’ transportation of raw material from ports to factories and from factories to agents in the midst of movement restrictions in place to curb the pandemic spread, allow 24-hour operation of animal feed trucks.
Along with that, the city will collaborate with banks to expand unsecured loans. The city will also tighten collaboration with relevant ministries and branches to expand the purchase of raw material sources from Eastern European countries such as Russia and Ukraine.
In the context that the Covid-19 pandemic remains complicated in many countries, Hanoi’s mayor Chung urged the animal feed production enterprises to share material sources as well as support product consumption among them and continue to expand infrastructure investment in order to ensure storage of raw materials.
