Inflation for the next 12 months is expected to remain lower than 4 per cent, just like it has over the past three years.

If pig farming firms continue to push pork prices up, they will suffer losses and damage as customers are forecast to use alternative meats and imported pork is likely to flood the local market until it dominates the pork market.

Chung cake makers in Hanoi are facing difficulties buying pork as demand increases for the Tet Holiday.

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.

Prices of pork hit a record high with some supermarkets in Ho Chi Minh City selling pork ribs at VND280,000 per kilogram and the price of pigs reaching VND90,000 per kilogram.

The sharp rise in pork prices has driven up the costs of related food in restaurants and markets.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue on November 18 assigned the Ministry of Industry and Trade to calculate pork supply and demand every month from now until Tet holiday.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade over the past few months has proposed solutions to the prime minister to stabilize the local market in the lead up to the upcoming Tet holiday early next year.

VietNamNet Bridge - Imported meat available at nearly all large supermarkets in Hanoi is surprisingly cheap, posing a threat to the domestic livestock industry.

VietNamNet Bridge - While Vietnam struggles with scandals about banned substances and high antibiotic residue, meat imports from Europe have begun dominating the domestic market.

VietNamNet Bridge - According to tests conducted in 2012, meat and vegetables took the lead for being contaminated with bacterium and chemical residues among agricultural products.

VietNamNet Bridge - Civets, deer, roebucks and porcupines are butchered and hung for sale along the way to the Huong (Perfurme) Pagoda.