HCMC - Despite being sold at half the price of domestic pork, the demand for imported frozen pork is still in decline.

Imported frozen pork is now sold at VND60.000-90.000 per kilogram, half the price of domestic pork. According to the Agency of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, July alone saw 10,000 tons of frozen pork imported with a total value of US$21.6 million, a respective year-on-year drop in quantity and imported prices of 31.2% and 36.8%. The agency attributed the decline to the falling demand from consumers after a significant repopulation of domestic pig herds, resulting in more stable pork prices in the country. As of July, the total volume of imported pork had reached over 55,200 tons, worth more than US$117 million, a year-on-year drop of 40% and 50% in quantity and price. According to Ipos, a France-based market research company, Vietnamese tend to eat less pork, roughly 23.5 kilograms per year. More data from the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development showed that Vietnamese consume less than 26 kilograms of pork per year, a drop of four to five kilograms per year compared to the pre-pandemic years. Currently, Russia, Canada, Brazil, Poland and Denmark are Vietnam’s largest suppliers. Among them, Brazil accounts for nearly 37.5% of Vietnam’s pork imports. Although pork prices at the local wet markets have more than doubled those of imported ones, around VND130,000-150,000 depending on the kind of meat, buyers still opt for domestic pork for its freshness.