Vietnam has spent in the first four months of this year US$618 million on animal feed imports. This represents a 19.3% reduction in spending compared to last year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reports.
The drop is being attributed to thee price decreases in imported fodder, as well as increasingly abundant supplies domestically.
Vietnam uses mainly corn, cereal grains, soy beans and cassava as raw fodder. In addition the harvest this year mostly produced foddering products, given that the price of paddies has also dropped.
Vietnam’s dependence on imported materials has meant that the final products are 10 to 15% higher than in neighbouring Thailand or China.
Feed raw material imports were 8.9 million tonnes last year, at a total cost of US$3.7 billion, representing about 62% of the total demand.