Agricultural sector aims to increase domestic beef production

According to the Agricultural Outlook of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, in 2020, the average beef consumption in Vietnam was 9.2 kilogram per person per year. However, domestic production merely met 30 percent of beef production, and the remaining 70 percent were imported from other countries.
By November last year, the total output and value of live market cows and bulls imported to Vietnam were more than 500,000 heads (of which, 91 percent were cows), with a turnover of US$556 million; cool cattle meat reached 1.5 million kilograms; frozen meat reached 80 million kilograms.

Amid the current situation, the State, as well as localities, has issued many policies to encourage and boost the development of livestock farming to increase domestic beef production. Especially, the livestock development strategy for the period from 2021 to 2030, with a vision for 2045 to develop livestock production, in general, and beef cattle, in particular, has been approved. Accordingly, the agricultural sector will maintain an average growth rate of 1 percent per year for the period from 2021 to 2030 and an average increase of 6 percent per year of beef production, and raise the proportion of large muscular breeds to above 70 percent of the total herd.

Along with that, the strategy will integrate the livestock development planning in provincial and regional clusters with the national one. At the same time, it will convert inefficient areas to growing grass with high yield and value for livestock farming, organize the linkage between stages in livestock production under the value chain from producing - purchasing - processing - preserving to consuming. Localities need to build brands and geographical indications for their products, aiming at producing beef and buffalo meat following cool meat standards to ensure food safety throughout the production process, storage, and distribution.

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