April 25, 2012
Vietnam spends US$3.7 billion on animal feed materials importation
A total of US$3.7 billion have been spent by Vietnam to import 8.9 million tonnes of materials for 2011 animal feed production of which 62% of the total materials used in the country's animal feed production sector.
The figures were provided by Le Ba Lich, chairman of the Vietnam Animal Feeds Association.
In details, the country imported 4.8 million tonnes of protein-rich materials like soy and processed animal protein powder and other 3.8 million tonnes of materials which can be produced or replaced by domestic products including 870,000 tonnes of corn; 570,000 tonnes of rice bran and 2.3 million tonnes of wheat, Lich said. "This has been the weakness of the sector over the past years and made the domestic livestock husbandry less effective," he said.
Lack of planting land for animal feed and farming is considered to be the main reason for the high import value and volume of material for feed production.