Vietnam exported 22.45 thousand tons of meat and meat products for $110.35 million in 2023

According to the Agency of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, China has agreed to consider the file for Vietnam's poultry meat exports as early as 2024. This presents an opportunity for Vietnamese companies to increase meat exports to this market.

The Agency of Foreign Trade said Vietnam exported 22.45 thousand tons of meat and meat products for $110.35 million in 2023, an increase of 19% in quantity and 30.4% in value over 2022.

It is worth noting that Vietnamese meat and meat products are sold to 28 markets globally, with the majority going to Hong Kong (China), China, Belgium, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Cambodia, France, and the United States... Hong Kong (China) is Vietnam's top importer of meat and meat products, accounting for 42.88% in volume and 54.44% in value of total meat exports, with 9.63 thousand tons worth $60.07 million, up 25.3% in quantity and 41% in value from 2022. Vietnam's meat and meat products shipped to the Hong Kong (China) market are mostly frozen whole milk pork and frozen complete hog.

According to the Agency of Foreign Trade, Vietnam's exported meat and meat products in 2023 included fresh, frozen, or frozen pork (primarily milk pork and frozen raw pork); other meats and by-products of meat that can be eaten after slaughtering of other animals; meat or by-products that can be consumed after slaughtering of poultry; flesh and by-product meats that are eaten following slaughter, soaked in saltwater, dried, or smoked; beef, beef, and beef that are frozen...

Fresh frozen or frozen pork (mostly milk pork and frozen whole pork) is the most exported, with 10.77 thousand tons worth $63.35 million, up 2.7% in quantity and 24.7% in value from 2022. Fresh, frozen, or frozen pork is shipped to Hong Kong (China), Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Laos, and Singapore.

Also in 2023, the export of meat and edible by-products following chicken slaughter increased dramatically, reaching 4.77 thousand tons worth $12.04 million, up 136.1% in volume and 214% in value from 2022; mostly exported to China, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Korea, and Hong Kong (China).

In actuality, Tran Thanh Nam, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, stated that cattle exports to China remained slow. For many years, the majority of Vietnam's meat and livestock products (pork, chicken, beef, cattle, etc.) have not been exported to China for a variety of reasons, including the inability to export under official quotas; pork exports have encountered border barriers, inspections, and controls under stricter standards.

In the livestock sector, Vietnam and China have only signed the Protocols on Yuan (on November 9, 2022) and Milk (in 2019), which are the two animal husbandry products from Vietnam that are permitted to be exported primarily to China. Thanks to the Protocol, milk exports to China have increased dramatically in recent years, accounting for 93% of all cattle product exports to the Chinese market.

During the recent visit of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development delegation to China in early 2024, China promised to review Vietnam's chicken export filings to the Chinese market. Mr. Nam contended that with a market of 1.4 billion people, the annual demand for meat products is around $400 billion, thus the surplus of meat exports to China is many times greater than the number of vegetables.