Agricultural commodities, processing and products
Animal products
Pig farmers in Laos face debt and bankruptcy due to falling pork prices
A Lao government program that provided loans to farmers to raise pigs in the run-up to the Southeast Asian Games held in the country seven years ago has bankrupted several farmers who have become mired in debt as pork prices have fallen, pushing a few ...
Cold snap kills livestock in Huaphan
More than 200 cattle and almost 100 buffaloes died in Laos’ Huaphan province last week as a result of cold weather that hit the province last week. The cold weather also killed hundreds kilograms of tilapia fish in ponds and some poultry according to the provincial ...
Farmers need financial help ahead of more cold weather
Authorities urged financial support be provided to farmers affected by the last historic cold spell before 1 February’s chilly northern weather, 11 degrees Celsius in Hanoi, damaged their businesses further. A report by the Office of the Steering Committee for Disaster Prevention and Rescue showed that recent ...
For migrants, the legal route brings few benefits: report
They are mired in debt bondage, their pay slips are slashed by hidden fees and fabricated taxes, and they’re forced to work excessive hours in slave-like conditions absent of breaks and without the guarantee of overtime pay. This is the lot of migrant workers who ...
Nghe An culls thousands of chickens to prevent bird flu outbreak
Health authorities in the central province of Nghe An have culled more than 2,365 chicken after many of them were found infected with two dangerous strains of bird flu. Keep reading ...
Migrants processing Thai chicken exports abused, exploited— Researchers
Migrants processing Thai chicken for its biggest export market, Europe, face widespread abuse by their employers, partly because foreign auditors have focused on food safety rather than workers’ conditions, researchers said on 25 November. Chicken is set to become the world’s most consumed meat, within the ...
Farmers cheer as Vietnam inks deal to export straw to Japan for cow feed
Rice straw, which is usually treated as waste and burned after each harvest in Vietnam, will become a valuable export product for the country next year. A new agreement signed on 18 November in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho allows the state-owned Song Hau Collective ...
Vietnam, New Zealand sign four agreements
Vietnamese and New Zealand businesses signed four agreements on 15 November during the official visit by New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to Vietnam. The four business-to-business arrangements – between Global Trust Alliance, AsureQuality and Vinamilk, Airways International and the Vietnam Air Traffic Management Corporation, Airways International ...
Vietnam sees 44,000 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease
The Ministry of Health has reported 44,000 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease nationwide this year, including five fatalities, all in the south. “The number of cases is down 30 percent from last year,” Tran Dac Phu, director of the ministry’s Centre for Preventive Health, said. Keep reading ...
New slaughterhouse regulations aim to curb disease
Following the opening of Cambodia’s first modern abattoir last month, a new draft law to regulate animal produce and slaughterhouses was announced on 6 November, along with the establishment of a “National Butchers’ Day” to be recognised annually on 8 January. The 22-chapter law, revealed by ...
