Chinese traders’ requests for pork cuts limits sales of Vietnamese pork
China consumes 144,000 tons of pork a day, according to FAO, but Vietnamese farmers cant sell their pork to the country because of demands made by Chinese traders. This comes at a time when there is a pork oversupply in Vietnam, with prices plummeting. Dat Viet quoted a FAO’s report as showing that China needs 53 million tons of pork a year. At the time when China began reform in 1979, pork accounted for 92.1 percent of the ‘meat basket’ of China. The figure has fallen in recent years, but still accounts for 65.1 percent of the total demand for meat. According to USDA, in 2012-2016, China’s pork consumption increased by 6.1 percent, while beef consumption increased by 11.5 percent. Regarding the selling price, FAO reported that pork is sold at $4.96 per kilo, or VND110,000 in cities.
