The first seven months of 2022 saw an overall increase in corn and soybean imports, costing nearly US$2.7bn, according to data from the General Department of Customs, the Department of Livestock Production (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development)
Vietnam also spends more than US$400mn on other materials such as 2.2 million tons of oilseeds, 0.73 million tons of wheat; fish meal, bone meal, animal protein, and a mixture of trace elements (Premix). As a result, the import of input materials for livestock and poultry feed production has reached US$3.1bn. According to the Department of Livestock Production, import of corn and soybean has been very high over the years. This is because the domestic production of these two materials only meets 37% of the demand of the animal feed industry.
The import volume of corn reached 600,000 tons with a value of US$191.7mn. Over a period of seven months, corn imports reached 5.1 million tons, equivalent to US$1.8bn, going down by 21.9% in volume, although not a huge difference in value in comparison to the same period last year. Imported corn prices on the other hand, remained at a high level of US$300-380/ton, without seeing any change. With soybean, the volume of imports was estimated at 250,000 tons with the value being US$189.4mn in July 2022, thus bringing the total volume and value of soybean imports to 1.3 million tons and US$893.6mn over a period of seven months. This was equivalent in volume, with a 22.8% increase in value over the same period in 2021.
Brazil, the United States and Canada have been the three main soybean suppliers to Vietnam during the first half of 2022, possessing a 99.2% market share. The Department of Livestock Production believes that disruption of the global supply chain, including the supply of imported animal feed ingredients due to the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a decrease in supply and increase in transportation. This has in turn caused the price of raw materials and finished products to go up significantly.
