Swine production and challenges in Vietnam after African swine fever: A Case study in peri-Urban Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract

The goal of this paper was to identify major challenges in rebuilding the swine industry in Vietnam, using the Chuong My district, Hanoi as a case study. Primary data was gathered in 2020 mainly through a survey of 97 swine producers in the district. Analysis tools were descriptive and comparative statistics. Results show that after the African swine fever (ASF) outbreak, the recovery of the swine industry in Vietnam faced several challenges, including the issues of piglet quantity and quality, changing consumer preferences which were worsened by the current Covid-19 pandemic, relatively cost disadvantage of domestic production under the context of new free trade agreements, disease risk (ASF under the condition of no effective and safe vaccine), insufficient resources of farms to restock, and environmental issues caused by swine production in rural areas. The paper proposed several recommendations to rebuilding the swine herd in order to address the issues and overcome the challenges, mainly focus on improving sow quality, market information and linkages, good practices in production, training for labor, and address environmental issues.