A vendor sells pork at the lively Orussey Market in the capital’s Prampi Makara district. Heng Chivoan
The expanding domestic production and supply capacity for pigs and products thereof now ensures that 100 per cent of daily demand for pork is met nationwide, although the market rate for the meat has dropped by more than one-tenth on a yearly basis, according to the Cambodia Livestock Raisers Association (CLRA) president.
Srun Pov told The Post on August 17 that domestically-raised live pigs currently cost an average of $2.80 per kilogramme, compared to $3.20 in August 2021, driven down by the number of the hoofed animals on the market.
This and fears of a supply glut have resulted in greatly diminished demand for imported hogs, he said, adding that traders used to bring in the flat-snouted mammals from Vietnam at around $2.90-3.00 per kg – exceeding the present rate of local ones.
The CLRA president’s comments come about a month after Tan Phannara, head of the General Directorate of Animal Health and Production under the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, told a press conference that there is adequate supply of pork for domestic consumption till the end of 2022 and that his ministry had “not allowed the import of pigs for nine months” due to sufficient production.
According to Pov, daily Cambodian pork demand is equivalent to about 8,000 hogs.
He said the ministry’s approaches to promoting and encouraging animal husbandry have given major impetus to Cambodia’s pig raising scene, especially since the emergence of Covid-19, and have also considerably increased the number of chickens in the Kingdom.
He commented that aside from the multitude of pig farms across the country, several large agricultural firms operating in the Kingdom such as CP, M’s Pig ACMC Cambodia, and Betagro.
Taing Mengkea, pork distributor and vendor based in the capital’s Orussey Market, shared that he now sells pork wholesale at 15,000 riel ($3.75) per kg and retail at 17,000-19,000 riel, remarking that his wholesale rate last year was similar to the current retail price.
“The price of fresh pork may be lower now than it had been last year, but the pork on the market now is 100 per cent domestic,” he confirmed.
Although highlighting the lack of live pigs imported from Vietnam for slaughter in Cambodia owing to the lower prices, Mengkea claimed that frozen pig innards brought in from the neighbouring country are still rampant.
Meanwhile, earlier this week, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon underscored that the continued uptick in animal husbandry operations has substantially fuelled development in different animal- and meat-related sub-sectors, stabilised national economic growth and created local jobs. He also commented that animal husbandry players are using a decent share of local raw materials.
The minister was speaking during a visit to food factories along with pig farms and slaughterhouses in neighbouring Takeo and Kampot provinces of southern Cambodia.
Sakhon voiced support for investors and encouraged them to be more active in the promotion and support of animal husbandry, slaughterhouses, feed and food production, among other things.
He also told the animal health and production general directorate to raise awareness of slaughter and food production standards as well as advances in the technologies and practices involved in animal husbandry and feed production to inspire confidence in the sector, and to be on the lookout for promising products that could be made through collaborative networks, with a view to future exports.
