Vietnam to Continue Import of Essential Goods in 2011
Vietnam, which has continuously incurred trade gap over the past years, will continue to import meat, salt, sugar, animal feed and steel products this year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said.
Total domestic demand for all meat products would increase 6.5%-7% to 2.9 million tons this year, the ministry said. There would be a resultant shortfall of 90,000-100,000 tons of meat which would need to be imported.
The ministry also estimated that Vietnam would import 182,000 tons of salt this year because domestic demand was expected to reach 1.35 million tons while local production would be just over 1 million tons.
The country would also import 250,000 tons of sugar this year, lower than 2010's 300,000 tons, the ministry said.
Domestic demand would reach 1.3-1.4 million tons while domestic supply would be roughly 1 million tons.
Animal feed was another of the essential goods that would need to be imported in 2011 because domestic supply would total only 15.2 million tons of the estimated total demand of 20.6 million tons.
Total imports would reach 7.7 million tons this year against 6 million last year.
Meanwhile, steel imports were predicted to reach 1 million tons this year as the domestic demand was estimated at 6.5 million tons while local production was expected to reach just 5.8 million tons. (VNS)
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