US and Vietnam to form a “Pork Consortium”
The Vietnam Trade Alliance, a group of buyers and producers, signed a pact on 28 October to buy up to $500 million work of American pork over three years.
28 October 2020
3 minute read
By: Reuters reports that a memorandum of understanding called a “US-Vietnam Pork Consortium” was signed with Smithfield Foods and other US pork producers on the side-line of a virtual Indo-Pacific Business Forum on Wednesday 28 October.
Pork accounts for three-quarters of total meat consumption in Vietnam, a country of 96 million people where most of its farm-raised pigs are consumed domestically.
The Southeast Asian country is rebuilding its hog herd after an outbreak of African swine fever first detected in February last year forced it to cull millions of pigs, or 20 percent of the herd. In May it said it would buy 20,000 breeding pigs from Thailand.
Vietnam Trade Alliance will buy US chilled and frozen pork and pork products for further processing and distribution into the Vietnam market, the statement said.
Vietnam's pork imports from the United States rose to $35 million in the first eight months of this year from $4 million in 2015, it said.
"This export activity will also help increase overall US agricultural exports to Vietnam, help address the US-Vietnam trade imbalance, and directly support US farmers and ranchers and processing companies.," the statement said.
