In mid-September, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group launched a special product – pork from pigs fed with bananas. In late October, BaF introduced pork from pigs fed with vegetarian food. Vietnamese businesses are racing to compete in the pork segment, which is estimated to value US$15 billion.

According to a recent report by Fitch Solutions (USA), Vietnam’s total meat consumption is forecast to grow by over 25% in the period 2018-2026.

In particular, pig farming has become an attractive business because pork is the main source of animal protein in the meals of Vietnamese, accounting for about two-thirds of total meat consumption.

Fitch Solutions said that Vietnam will be one of the countries with the strongest growth in meat consumption globally in the coming years. By 2026, on average, each Vietnamese will consume more than 51 kg of meat per year, including 31 kg of pork, more than 16 kg of chicken and more than 4 kg of beef, an increase of 9% compared to the forecasted consumption for this year.

According to the 2021 report of Masan MEATLife (Masan Group), the Vietnamese pork market is estimated at about $15 billion. 

According to the Department of Livestock Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), the pig farming industry in Vietnam has a large domestic market of nearly 100 million people and the number of tourists is up to 15-18 million people/year. 

Statistics show that in 2021, the output of live pork reached 4.18 million tons. In addition, Vietnam imported 346,000 live pigs and 143,463 tons of pork from Russia, Brazil, the US, Germany, and Poland.

In 2022, it is expected that the demand for live pigs is about 51 million heads, with a growth rate of about 4.8% over the same period in 2021. 

In the past few years, pork prices have fluctuated strongly due to the influence of epidemics, leading to crises of excess and shortage. The price of live pigs sometimes jumped to more than VND 100,000 per kilo - the highest in history.

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According to the livestock development strategy for the period 2021-2030, the total number of pigs is about 30 million, of which pigs raised at industrial farms account for over 70%.

In 2022, Vietnam has 28.6 million pigs. Notably, while the scale of pig production by households is shrinking, that of businesses is rising.

The report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shows that, on average, the rate of household livestock production decreases by 5-7% per year. In 2011, Vietnam had about 4.13 million pig breeding facilities. After the pork price crisis in 2017, the number of pig breeding facilities dropped to about 2.5 million. In 2020, there were only about 2 million pig breeding establishments and in 2021 the figure was only 20,843 pig breeding establishments with at least 10 pigs, with a total 11.7 million heads, accounting for 41.6% of the total pig herd. Thus, the majority of the market belongs to enterprises, with about 16.4 million heads.

Currently, foreign enterprises hold up to 70% of the market share of industrial pig farming. Realizing the potential of the Vietnamese pork market, big corporations have invested strongly in livestock projects. However, the investment trend has changed, gradually forming a chain-linked farm system in the direction of closed production from farm to dining table.

This trend exploded in 2022 when many corporations poured huge capital into the livestock industry. For example, in January, the Can Tho Agricultural Engineering Materials Joint Stock Company and Dabaco Vietnam Group Joint Stock Company invested VND3 trillion to develop pig farming, with the goal of providing 1 million pigs for provinces from Da Nang to the South.

At the same time, De Heus Genetics from the Netherlands transported over 600 breeding pigs from Canada to its farm in Son La. This is a step to promote De Heus's strategy of expanding industrial pig production in Vietnam. This investor also cooperates with Hung Nhon Group to invest in high-tech agricultural complexes in Dak Lak, Gia Lai, Lam Dong, and Tay Ninh. Total investment in these projects amounted to thousands of billions of VND, which mainly focused on raising pigs.

In mid-2022, Mavin Group also received $52 million from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to expand its pig herd. This project aims to triple the scale of commercial pig farms by 2025, providing about 900,000 pigs to the market each year. Japfa has also invested VND500 billion to build a 40-hectare pig farm, providing the market with over 130,000 pigs, equivalent to 14,000 tons of pork per year.

After pouring VND1.3 trillion into a banana-fed pig project in Gia Lai, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group has launched Bapi pork product (pork from pigs fed with banana). At the same time, this firm opened BapiFood butcher shop chain, with a target of having about 1,000 stores by the end of 2023, mainly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. This group aims to supply 1 million banana-fed pigs a year.

Most recently, BaF Vietnam has announced the brand BaFlesh Vegetarian Pork. In the fourth quarter of 2023, when all of its pig farms come into operation, the total pig herd of BaF is expected to reach over 1 million heads compared to the current 300,000. 

When it entered the pig farming market in 2018, Masan MEATLife assessed that the cool meat market valued more than $10.2 billion and had no leader. At that time, it set the goal of holding 10% of the country's pork market by 2022 with a revenue of about $2-3 billion/year and after-tax profit of about $200-$450 million/year. However, with the participation of many big players in this market, this goal has been moved to 2025.

According to Mr. Nguyen Xuan Duong, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Livestock Association, the potential for 'safe' pork is huge. This is the starting point for the transition from consuming meat products at traditional markets to products in the modern distribution system. Pig farming households can participate in the linkage chain, because in the near future the pig farming industry will not only serve the domestic market but also exports. 

Tam An