The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will coordinate with relevant units to strictly inspect and handle to ensure the cessation of manual slaughtering activities at existing livestock slaughterhouses after April 1st.
This information was announced by Mr. Dinh Minh Hiep – Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) at a press conference on the socio-economic situation in Ho Chi Minh City on the afternoon of March 30th.
He said that the People’s Committees of districts, towns, and Thu Duc City are working with owners of manual livestock slaughterhouses to shift to industrial slaughterhouses within the city.
Earlier, An Ha Services Company sent a request regarding the fact that although they had invested in an industrial livestock slaughterhouse, the number of traders who registered to shift to industrial slaughter was still low, and there was still the issue of manually slaughtered pigs returning to the city for consumption.
Mr. Dinh Minh Hiep, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, at a press conference on the socio-economic situation in Ho Chi Minh City on the afternoon of March 30. Photo: T.N.
Regarding this issue, Mr. Hiep confirmed that there is a quantity of pigs transferred from other localities to the city for consumption, although not the main figure, but this amount of pigs is still controlled to ensure food safety and hygiene.
According to him, on average, Ho Chi Minh City consumes about 10,000-11,000 pigs per day, of which the city can meet 5,000-6,000 pigs (slaughtered manually and industrially), about 2,000 are transferred from other provinces, and the remaining are frozen pork.
“They may return to be slaughtered at industrial slaughterhouses in the city because pork slaughtered in the city still has many advantages, especially being close to the place of consumption,” he said.
The spokesperson said that when the operation of manual slaughterhouses ends, the Food Safety Management Board will continue to coordinate with the Market Management Department, inter-sectoral delegations at the district, and Thu Duc city levels to strengthen inspection and supervision of animal product sources from provinces brought to the city for consumption according to regulations.
“At the beginning, when manual slaughterhouses switch to industrial slaughterhouses, there will be some shortcomings in production and business. The closure of manual facilities in the area and the operation of modern slaughterhouses are already an initial success,” he emphasized.
In addition, industrial slaughterhouse investors have also had initial support policies to facilitate traders bringing livestock for slaughter, such as reducing slaughter costs, allowing livestock owners to visit and supervise the slaughter process at the slaughterhouse. When slaughter capacity increases, costs will decrease, attracting more pigs from provinces.
In the future, Ho Chi Minh City will have solutions to remove specific difficulties and obstacles of each project to gradually increase industrial slaughter capacity, ensuring that from 2023 onwards, industrial slaughterhouses must operate at 80-100% capacity.