Animal agribusiness recruitment agencies in Vietnam: a coming increase in demand?

Over the last three decades and since the Doi Moi economic reforms of the 1980s, Vietnam’s animal agribusiness and agricultural sectors have undergone something of a transformation. Prior to pre-economic reforms Vietnam was a nation coping with the significant food shortages; however, the country is now one of the world’s leading exporters of a wide range of agricultural products and the highest volume of pork production.

Despite the significant growth of Vietnam’s agribusiness sector, the country’s livestock industry has faced a number of difficulties in recent years, ranging from epidemics affecting livestock and poultry, through to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. With this in mind, in this article we’ll take a look at some of the problems the country’s farmers and food producers are facing, the outlook for positive growth, and the subsequent impact on animal agribusiness recruitment agencies in Vietnam.

Vietnam’s livestock sector

When you consider that Vietnam is one of the world’s largest producers and consumers of pork, it wont be surprising to learn that the country also has one of the world’s most important pork markets. Vietnam is just behind China in terms of pork production in Asia, and seventh in worldwide rankings. In addition, the country is also the largest consumer of pork per capita in Southeast Asia.

Prior to the arrival of African swine fever in 2019, Vietnam’s consumption of pork was supplied by over 95% domestic production. To address the problems posed by African swine fever, Vietnam’s pig herd underwent something of a clean-up and was reduced by a staggering 85%, due to the slaughter of around 90,000 pigs in 2020.

Such a dramatic step led to a significant fall in pork production, and a subsequent price crisis which had a major impact upon domestic consumption, resulting in increased pork imports. As a result, Vietnam imported over 220,000 tons of pork in 2020, a figure which is far higher than the 30,000 tons per year which had been imported just a couple of years before. Despite this, figures released from the Vietnamese government now indicate that the situation has stabilised in terms of prices and production.

Although the arrival of African swine fever was, of course, hugely negative, the crisis did encourage Vietnam’s pig sector to increase investments to improve the size, quality, integration, biosecurity and technology of pig farms. Several positive outcomes have arisen from these increased investments, leading to significant improvements in quality and levels of production.

It goes without saying that an increase in the recruitment of talented individuals will have played an important role in the development of Vietnamese pig production, and animal agribusiness recruitment agencies in Vietnam are confident that this situation will continue as the sector develops further.

Recruitment for poultry production in Vietnam

Persistent problems with avian influenza and other animal diseases continues to present major challenges to poultry production in Vietnam. As already mentioned, the 2019 outbreak of African swine fever also had significant implications for the country’s poultry production industry. As consumers reduced their consumption of pork and moved to chicken instead, this led to an increase in poultry production, which, in turn, led to an increase in avian influenza.

In an effort to minimise the outbreak of disease amongst the country’s poultry flocks, the Vietnamese government has collaborated with international organisations such as the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, USAID and the World Organisation for Animal Health to implement a number of national animal disease control programmes. The aim of these programmes is to keep outbreaks of animal disease to a minimum by developing safe supply chains and building disease safety zones. In addition, the increased need for disease control is likely to call for the expertise of individuals with experience in supply chain management, research and development, farm management, animal production and quality control.

Another aspect of the country’s agribusiness sector which would benefit from the expertise of animal agribusiness recruitment specialists in Vietnam is poultry production. At present, the majority of Vietnam’s chickens are kept domestically, used mainly for commercial purposes and accounting for 60% of the country’s egg production. Poultry farms account for remaining production and the number of farms which keep 8,000 to 15,000 birds is increasing.

Although the picture has been somewhat mixed for poultry production in Vietnam, increasing opportunities are being offered by the development of consumers’ online buying habits. Online trading could prove highly lucrative as the diversification of traditional delivery networks enables the country’s poultry farmers to adapt to changing shopping habits, whilst increasing distribution and maintaining stable levels of production.

Contact Peak Recruit – your animal agribusiness recruitment agency in Vietnam

At Peak Recruit we provide specialist animal agribusiness recruitment services in Vietnam and throughout the Asia Pacific region. Our Animal Agriculture division covers the animal husbandry and aquaculture segments, from breeding and veterinary care, through to research and development.

If you would like to find out how we can help you find your dream role or recruit the individuals you need to drive your business forward, please get in touch to speak to our Animal Agriculture team.