The HCM City Department of Industry and Trade and the UK’s Ministry for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding on launching a pork trading floor.

The UK department will provide support in technologies and market research, and the creation of regulations on establishment, operation, training and management of pork trading floor.

According to Rachel Holloway, of the UK Ministry of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the MoU has two years of validity.

It will help create a favourable environment for businesses as well as ensure consumer interests.

The pork trading floor will helps farmers eliminate their dependence on intermediaries, direct access to consumers, and stop manual slaughtering of pigs, thereby ensuring residents that they buy clean and safe food.

With a pork trading floor, businesses and animal husbandry establishments will connect directly. Intermediaries only provide logistics and transport services.

There will be independent units to check the ratio of lean meat, fat, and pH in meat, and based on that data the selling price and purchase price will be determined.

Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, deputy director of the city’s Department of Industry and Trade, said that intermediaries currently play an important role in the pork market. They decide the prices and the quality, while farmers and consumers do not play any role in the pork market.

According to the department, 10,000 pigs are supplied with a clear source of origin each day in HCM City, with total worth of US$2 million. The city consumes US$750 million worth of pork every year. – VNS