HCM CITY — The animal husbandry industry in the remaining months of the year will strengthen production to ensure supply of livestock and poultry meat in the domestic market at reasonable prices, especially on the occasion of Lunar New Year, an official said yesterday.

Nguyen Thanh Son, deputy head of the Animal Husbandry Department, said at a meeting in HCM City that demand for meat of all kinds in the later half of the year is estimated at 1.7-1.8 million tonnes, an increase of 4-4.5 per cent over the same period last year.

Prices of livestock and poultry products were forecast to remain high in the second half but would be 10-15 per cent lower than the first half, he said, adding that pork prices would slightly fall at the end of this month.

Prices of livestock and poultry products increased strongly in the first half of the year, with that of pork increasing the most by between 54.1-71.2 per cent over the end of last year, Son said.

He attributed the higher prices to disease outbreaks, increased input costs and a poor distribution system.

The blue ear pig disease outbreak last year and earlier this year, for instance, reduced the number of pigs by 10-30 per cent over the same period last year, leading to a supply shortage in the first half, especially in June and July.

Several problems continued to plague the distribution system, particularly the large number of middlemen, causing a big difference between buying prices at pigsties and selling price to customers, he said.
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