Authorities seek to ensure sufficient supply of food, petrol

Petrolimex has prepared petroleum import plans to meet domestic demand

Hot items at year end

At the regular meeting of the Domestic Market Management Team in September, Ta Thi Thu Viet, Deputy Director of the Price Statistics Department of the General Statistics Office of Vietnam said the country had culled more than five million pigs, equivalent to over 290,000 tonnes, due to the continued outbreak of the African swine fever.

Reduced pork supplies have resulted in soaring prices. Compared to the end of July 2019, the prices in many provinces and cities have increased by VND2,000-5,000 per kg to about VND35,000-47,000 per kg. To ensure sufficient domestic pork supplies, pork imports in the first seven months increased sharply by 11,658 tonnes with a turnover of US$22.1 million, 3.7 times higher in volume and 4.3 times higher in value compared with the same period last year.

In addition to pork, petrol supplies are also expected to decline when the Nghi Son Refinery carries out maintenance work by the end of the year. According to a representative of the Vietnam National Petroleum Group (Petrolimex), Saudi Arabia’s largest oil and gas group - Aramco, which is a major provider of petroleum and gasoline products to Asian factories, has been bombed by terrorists recently, putting high pressure on supplies and prices.

Ensuring supplies of goods

Facing imminent difficulties in the last months of 2019, ministries, sectors, localities and businesses have been preparing supplies, especially of essential goods.

As for pork, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has directed the repopulation of pigs in unaffected areas. The Ministry of Industry and Trade has also directed the market management forces to coordinate with relevant agencies nationwide to observe quarantine regulations to prevent the transportation and sale of sick pigs and pork products.

A representative of the Hanoi Department of Industry and Trade said there was still no sign that the African swine fever was abating in the capital. Ahead of the Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, which falls in late January, Hanoi has already signed pork supply deals with neighboring provinces and cities. It also called on consumers in the city to use other kinds of meat to replace pork.

Regarding petrol and oil products, Petrolimex has prepared import plans to meet domestic demand. However, as importers have to buy many foreign currencies, Petrolimex expects banks to provide enough foreign currencies to stabilize the supply of petrol and oil products.