Joining TPP, Vietnam Livestock Industry Needs to Take Advantages of Tropical Agriculture

Joining the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is expected to create a positive impact on the economy of Vietnam, as well as opportunities for the agricultural sector but it will be a challenge for Vietnam's livestock industry.

This is a comment of the expert of the agricultural sector on the future of the livestock industry Vietnam after joining the TPP. To comply with the requirements of the TPP, Vietnam will face the high competitiveness of the livestock products in the market.

It has become more and more evident that imported beef is now overwhelming the markets in Vietnam. The main reason is the high consumption demand which domestic production has not met. Raising cattle in Vietnam is mainly conventional. Each farm often provides only 3 or 4 breeding beef cattle. The farms of breeding beef cattle are not on much larger scale. According to statistics of the Livestock Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, total national capacity could reach to 8 to 9 million of the breeding beef cattle, but the current capacity reaches just 5 million.

When the TPP agreement is signed, both tariffs and technical barriers will be removed. Beef products and other livelihood products like chicken, industrial eggs, meat, and milk will face the same challenges. The imported products are produced in large scale and have many advantages of 70-80 percent of high breeding and long-standing advanced industrial production line for decades ago will put the livestock products of Vietnam under challenges.

Selling right products with high advantages and opportunities from consumption habits  
The livelihood domestic producers should focus on the target customers who include 70-80 percent of the population living in the rural areas and have consumption habits of fresh agricultural products rather than frozen products.

On the other hand, Vietnamese producers could take advantage of the natural conditions to feed the fowls such as ducks and chicken by rice in their own farms. With regard to the breeding conditions, Nguyen Xuan Duong, Deputy Director of the Livestock Bureau, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, recommends that the conditions of the the whole area of the South Central Coast and the Mekong River Delta are favourable to raise the super duck meat and eggs. The farmers should focus on the products with high advantages of Vietnam, while Vietnamese businesses need to prepare to enhance the value of livestock products from domestic raw materials such as chicken, pork, duck or other products to meet consumer demand.

Restructuring for sustainable developmentRestructuring agriculture in Vietnam is currently much discussed. With regard to the livestock industry, restructuring aims to create products utilizing Vietnam's advantages such as tropical agriculture and rice fields. At the same time, the restructuring process will also focus on developing the biomass crops with fast growth and the crops harvested to feed animals.

During the restructuring process, the farmers will benefit from the highly applied science and technology programs in breeding animals and fowls and other science and technology programs to boost Vietnam's advantages.

In fact, many Vietnamese businesses are limited to their small scales, capital resources, and personnel, compared with the national corporations and multinational companies in the livestock industry. To overcome these shortcomings, the Vietnamese businesses will be encouraged to join hands and create production circles from breeding to food production. Thus, Vietnam's products will have more chances to sustain, grow and compete with foreign firms under the TPP.

Nguyen Thanh