Tighten control of smuggling and food safety during Lunar New Year 2025

More than 18,000 slaughterhouses are unlicensed.

According to information from the Department of Animal Health ( Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development ), animal diseases are basically under control, but some dangerous diseases tend to increase compared to 2023.

Industrial poultry slaughter line at Lan Vinh Joint Stock Company (Gia Lam district). Photo: Ngoc Anh

Regarding the slaughter situation, the whole country has 45/440 industrial slaughterhouses (CSGM) and most of these facilities are not operating at full design capacity. The cost of meat products is higher than the general market level (about 20-30%) and among 395/440 centralized CSGM, the majority do not have a hanging slaughter system...

In addition, the country has 18,102 CSGM that are not licensed by the government. Most of the small CSGMs occur spontaneously and have not received proper attention. Some localities have the phenomenon of transporting, trading, slaughtering sick animals, and consuming sick animal products.

Handling small-scale animal breeding and slaughtering facilities and trading in animal products that do not ensure veterinary hygiene and food safety is facing many difficulties. Some localities built centralized animal slaughterhouses before the QCVN 150:2017/BNNPTNT standard and the Planning Law, and are currently facing difficulties in completing documents to qualify for recognition of centralized animal slaughterhouses; the infrastructure system and equipment for animal slaughterhouses are degraded; the centralized animal slaughterhouse network is not yet complete; policies to encourage and support animal slaughterhouses, business, and transportation are not yet synchronized...

Regarding the issue of livestock and poultry slaughter management, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Ta Van Tuong said that the city has 718 livestock and poultry slaughtering facilities and points, but only 140 slaughterhouses (accounting for 19%) are licensed by the government and controlled by specialized veterinary agencies. These are large-scale slaughterhouses, accounting for 60% of the city's consumption needs.

It is worth mentioning that controlling slaughter in the city is still difficult because Hanoi borders 8 provinces and cities, the transportation of animals and animal products in and out of the city is very large and difficult to control; the amount of animal meat consumed is very large, on average Hanoi consumes 800-1,000 tons of livestock and poultry meat per day.

It is worth mentioning that some local authorities have not been resolute in managing and directing veterinary work, and have not paid attention to managing animal slaughter activities, so the work of ensuring veterinary hygiene, disease safety, and food safety has not been focused on. The number of animals slaughtered at operating centralized slaughterhouses is still low, only reaching an average of nearly 40% of the designed capacity.

Tighten control of slaughter and illegal transportation

To control food during the Lunar New Year 2025, experts and managers agree that it is necessary to promote propaganda and raise awareness of compliance with and good practices in slaughtering, preliminary processing, and processing, ensuring veterinary hygiene and food safety; at the same time, propaganda should be done to raise consumer awareness, not to use animal products of unknown origin, and not ensuring veterinary hygiene and food safety.

Packaging ham and sausage products at the closed slaughterhouse of Hoang Long Cooperative (Thanh Oai district). Photo: Ngoc Anh

Regarding long-term solutions, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said: The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development continues to advise the Government to issue specific policies to call for and encourage organizations and individuals to invest in and build modern, hanging animal slaughter lines to meet consumer demand.

Along with that, the Ministry issued policies to support and facilitate career conversion for the workforce after the suspension of small-scale CSGM operations; directed provinces and cities to strengthen coordination, strictly manage and control quarantine work, control slaughter to ensure disease safety, food safety, regularly update and share information...

Deputy Minister Phung Duc Tien emphasized that to ensure the supply of quality and safe food to meet consumer demand during the Lunar New Year, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development continues to direct the veterinary sector to implement drastic solutions to prevent the emergence, spread and outbreak of diseases.

The Ministry also coordinates with localities to strictly control the slaughter of livestock and poultry; strictly handle violations according to the law.

For border localities and competent authorities, it is necessary to step up the fight against smuggling and transport of smuggled livestock and poultry to prevent epidemics and protect domestic livestock; promote the application of information technology and 4.0 technology in animal quarantine, management and control of animal slaughter and animal products; build an information system to control slaughter, check veterinary hygiene and food safety by creating a database of livestock facilities, animal quarantine, and trace the origin of livestock and poultry brought for slaughter in the locality.

Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/siet-kiem-soat-nhap-lau-an-toan-thuc-pham-dip-tet-nguyen-dan-2025.html