HANOI- Live pig prices in Vietnam have risen steadily since Typhoon Yagi and subsequent flooding affected several pig farms in the country, which has already been hit by African swine fever outbreaks in recent years.
The typhoon, the strongest storm to hit Asia this year, made landfall in Vietnam’s northern provinces early this month, killing nearly 300 people and causing 60.7 trillion dong ($2.47 billion) of damage to properties, according to the government’s disaster agency.
More than 22,500 farmed animals, including pigs, and more than three million poultry have been killed, the agency said.
Live pig prices rose into a range of between 65,000 dong and 70,000 dong ($2.46-$2.85) per kilogram on Thursday in northern provinces, according to data from a Ministry of Industry and Trade newspaper, up from 64,000-67,000 dong before the typhoon and 55,000-58,000 dong a year ago.
“The floods might have also disrupted pork supply chains and prompted some traders to raise their live pig prices,” said Nguyen Xuan Duong, chairman of the Animal Husbandry Association of Vietnam.
“However, we are not seeing a pork crisis yet as the typhoon impacts are temporary,” Duong said, noting that the number of pigs killed is small compared with the country’s hog herd of around 28 million.
The government said in July that African swine fever outbreaks were spreading in Vietnam and could affect its food supplies and put upward pressure on inflation.
“The outbreaks remain today,” Duong said, without giving further details.
Typhoon Yagi caused severe damage to many factories and flooded warehouses in northern Vietnam’s export-oriented industrial hubs, with some shuttered plants expected to need weeks to return to full operation, executives said.
Asia’s strongest typhoon this year caused deadly floods and landslides, killing dozens and ravaging infrastructure such as power networks and roads.
The disruptions could affect global supply chains as Vietnam hosts large operations of multinationals that mostly export their products to the United States, Europe and other developed countries.
“Many of them are gone with the wind,” said Calvin Nguyen, head of Vietnamese logistics firm WeDo Forwarding Co., referring to products that were to have been delivered to the United States and the European Union, but without saying which.
The company’s three warehouses in the coastal city of Haiphong had their roofs blown off and were still flooded on Wednesday, he said.
The industry ministry did not reply to a request for comment.
In Haiphong, one of the areas worst hit by the typhoon, 95 percent of businesses had been expected to resume some activity, the body managing its industrial zones said.
