The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Department of Animal Husbandry and Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) have jointly organised a two-day exhibition-cum-conference on beef and dairy cattle in HCM City.

Speaking at the inauguration on Wednesday, Hoang Thanh Van, head of the Department of Animal Husbandry, noted that there was strong growth in cattle breeding in Viet Nam, with an average annual 7.5 per cent rise in the number of dairy cows and a 3 to 5 per cent increase in beef cattle.

The breeding farms have expanded in scale, he said.

However, Van said the sector has met only 6.5 per cent of the local demand for beef and 36 per cent of the country’s demand for milk, which has led to a sharp rise in import of dairy and beef cattle, mostly from Australia.

Australian Ambassador to Viet Nam Graig Chittick said that Australia and Viet Nam had a long-standing co-operation in cattle breeding, in areas such as provision of breeding stock, transfer of breeding techniques and expert training.

Chittick said the co-operation and trade in this sector between Australia and Viet Nam as well as other Asian countries would lay the foundation for maintaining a sustainable supply chain of milk and beef amidst increasingly fierce competition.

The event gives Vietnamese management officials, scientists, enterprises and cow-breeding farmers a good opportunity to check out Australia’s new products, services and technology in the livestock breeding sector.

During the two-day event, products related to livestock breeding will be showcased, and various workshops will be held on breeding technologies. – VNS