More than 500,000 pigs have been imported from Thailand since June 2020. However, the pork price has been rising to VND78,000-85,000 per kilogram in the lead-up to the Tet holiday.

Pork became very expensive in 2020 as Vietnam had to import pork to satisfy domestic demand.

Vietnam spent VND5 trillion ($214.78 million) to import pork in the first nine months of the year, leading to a drop in prices.

The pork production cost is just VND50,000 per kilogram for closed husbandry chains, while the live pork price in the market is VND80,000.

The rising number of herd stock, plus pork imports, have helped lower the domestic pork price.

While government officials attribute the high pork price to the low supply caused by the African swine fever (ASF), experts say they can see signs of oligopoly.

The price of live hog in the Vietnamese market decreased recently after the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) allowed imports of pigs from Thailand.

Even though pork prices have increased, farmers are having a hard time finding customers to buy pigs.

The petrol price has decreased by VND5,000 per liter after seven adjustments, but the prices of other goods remain unchanged.

CP Vietnam, the largest animal husbandry company, says that animal feed supply could run out by the end of May.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has done what it promised – imported pork in large quantities from the US, Canada, Brazil and Russia to stabilize the pork market.

Keeping the inflation rate at 4 percent in 2020 will be a challenging task, not only because of the pork price escalation, but also money excess.

If the nCoV epidemic lasts a long time, the GDP is expected to decrease.

Pork imports are needed to ensure stable supply and curb price escalation.

Many problems arose in the last months of 2019, which sparked the worry that 2020 would be a tough year for Vietnam’s economy.

The average inflation rate in 2019 was low at 2.79 percent. However, the inflation rate in December 2019 reached 5.23 percent compared with December 2018, and this is worrying.

A vaccine against African Swine Fever (ASF) is being developed in Vietnam.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s leadership should evaluate and learn from its shortcomings and be held accountable for delays in reporting the potential shortage of pork and the pork price hike to the Government.

Can the prices of pork destabilize the monetary policy formulated by the central bank in Vietnam?