African swine fever spreads, pig breeding farms in trouble

(Baohatinh.vn) - In the context of difficult output of piglets due to the impact of African swine fever, livestock farms in Ha Tinh are forced to increase the size of their pig herds, incurring many additional costs.

For nearly 3 months now, Ha Tinh Agriculture and Forestry Development Joint Stock Company (Truong Luu Commune), a member of Ha Tinh Minerals and Trading Corporation, has been facing challenges due to the African swine fever (ASF) epidemic raging in the area. On the one hand, the unit has to increase epidemic prevention costs by 20-30% compared to normal times, and on the other hand, it has to deal with the "inventory" of breeding pigs due to reduced consumption.

Ha Tinh Agriculture and Forestry Development Joint Stock Company is having difficulty in selling breeding pigs.

Mr. Mai Khac Mai - Director of Ha Tinh Agricultural and Forestry Development Joint Stock Company said: The unit currently has more than 1,800 sows with 14 satellite farms. On average, each month, in addition to providing breeding pigs for affiliated farms, the enterprise exports more than 1,500 breeding pigs to the market. However, for nearly 3 months now, the company has encountered difficulties in product output, only being able to sell a small number of breeding pigs at a lower price than before. This situation forced the enterprise to convert all "inventory" breeding pigs to raising pigs for meat. In the context of high costs of disease prevention in livestock herds, high prices of animal feed and electricity, the enterprise has incurred many costs.

In 2025, Ha Tinh Agricultural and Forestry Development Joint Stock Company set a revenue target of VND 245 billion, of which the first 7 months of the year reached about VND 170 billion. To maintain a stable livestock chain and prevent ASF from "attacking", the company continues to strengthen disease prevention and control, investing resources to protect livestock in the direction of biosafety farming.

Mitraco Ha Tinh Livestock Joint Stock Company strengthens disease prevention work on livestock (documentary photo).

Similarly, two "subsidiaries" specializing in pig farming of Ha Tinh Minerals and Trading Corporation, Mitraco Ha Tinh Livestock Joint Stock Company (Ha Huy Tap ward) and Thien Loc Livestock Feed Joint Stock Company (Can Loc commune) are also struggling to cope with ASF.

According to Mr. Nguyen Anh Thang - Deputy General Director of Ha Tinh Minerals and Trading Corporation: The Corporation has 3 affiliated units specializing in pig farming with a scale of 6,600 breeding pigs; supplying the market with about 150,000 breeding pigs and commercial pigs/year. Recently, due to the impact of ASF, the unit has encountered many difficulties due to high disease prevention costs, sharp decrease in the consumption of breeding pigs and pork, and many livestock costs. The Corporation has strengthened the direction of units not only to strictly implement internal disease prevention work, but also to support localities and farmers in implementing standard procedures for ASF prevention work; providing materials, medicines and sending staff to directly support the implementation. From here, it helps people prevent the disease and carry out external prevention work for the Corporation's farms.

Unable to sell breeding pigs, Thang Loi Cooperative had to increase the size of its pig herd.

In the "war" against ASF, cooperatives and livestock farms in the area face more pressure than businesses due to limited resources. Since the end of the second quarter of 2025, Thang Loi Cooperative (Tien Dien commune) has faced difficulties due to the high risk of ASF penetration and "blocked" product output.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Nghia - Director of Thang Loi Cooperative said: “We raise 300 sows, on average selling 500 breeding pigs to the market per month. Due to the complicated epidemic, farmers have stopped raising pigs, so the output is very difficult. We have to cooperate with farms inside and outside the province to consume breeding pigs, but it is still difficult, only selling about 1/3 of the output; the remaining 2/3 of the output must be kept for breeding, incurring many costs. In 2024, the cooperative set a revenue of over 15 billion VND, but this year the situation is difficult, the revenue is expected to decrease sharply."

For nearly 2 months now, the independent livestock farm of Mr. Tran Dinh Hoan's family (Son Tay commune) has not been able to sell any breeding pigs.

Mr. Tran Dinh Hoan said: “Foreseeing the disease situation in livestock, we previously reduced the number of sows from 520 to 460 to reduce the output of piglets. With 460 piglets, we currently produce 700 - 800 piglets per month. For a long time, the facility mainly sold piglets to people, but now people do not re-herd or increase their herds, so the facility cannot export piglets and is forced to increase the number of pigs for meat. Although the output is difficult and the cost is billions of dong, we do not dare to reduce the number of sows any further because it will cause passivity in the breeding process when the disease is controlled.”

It is difficult to sell breeding pigs, so farms have to increase the size of their pigs, incurring many costs.

The province currently has 254 medium and large-scale pig farms. Currently, the owners have to ensure disease prevention while dealing with the remaining pig stocks, causing costs of billions of VND per facility.

Mr. Phan Quy Duong - Head of Livestock Management Department, Ha Tinh Department of Crop Production and Livestock Production said: Ha Tinh's total pig herd currently reaches 402,000, of which 70% are concentrated. Recently, the complicated developments of ASF have made it difficult for most farms to sell breeding pigs, forcing them to switch to raising pigs for meat, incurring many costs. In addition, farms are currently also finding it difficult to sell pigs for meat, having to extend the raising time, the turnaround time is slower, and the economic efficiency is not high.

In the context of the epidemic not being controlled, livestock facilities should not increase or restore herds; focus on disease prevention; ensure livestock farming in the direction of bio-security, ensure clean barns, provide adequate food rations, balance nutrients for each type of pig and breeding stage; vaccinate according to regulations.

According to the industry, currently, ASF is occurring sporadically in households in 43 communes and wards in the province, causing over 4,900 pigs to be infected and destroyed. The disease is developing complicatedly in households and tends to continue to spread in the coming time.

Source: https://baohatinh.vn/dich-ta-lon-chau-phi-lan-rong-trang-trai-lon-giong-lao-dao-post293792.html