Vietnam spent US$2.04 billion to import animal feed and raw materials for the production of this kind of commodity in the first five months of this year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
The figure marks a year-on-year decrease of 2%.
Animal feed and raw materials from Argentina to Vietnam accounted for 25.8% of the total market shares, followed by India (18.3%) and the U.S. (15.2%).
Compared to the same period last year, the imports from the three countries increased by 3.9%, 130%, and 28.3%, respectively.
MARD recommends that to reduce reliance on imported animal feed, farmers in localities should make use of available domestic raw materials, produce animal feed by themselves to reduce cost, and find sources of raw materials for animal feed production.
Ministries and agencies were asked to tighten control over the import of meat and by-products, support importers to reduce the costs of products, as well as create favorable conditions for the development of material zones for animal feed production.