Household pork consumption behaviour in Vietnam: Implications for pro-smallholder pig value chain upgrading

Pork represents more than 70% of meat consumption in Vietnam, and pig production
provides livelihood for more than 4 million small farmers in the country. Understanding
pork consumption behaviour is thus important for upgrading the pig value chains
in Vietnam. The study is conducted with 416 households in Hung Yen and Nghe An
provinces. The results confirm that pork is the most widely eaten animal source food
in Vietnam (about 24.7 kg per capita and year), consumed by more than 95% of the
population of different ages and gender. A household spends about USD 30 monthly
for pork, accounting for 13% of total food expenditure. Meanwhile, other types of
meat appear to be weak substitutes to pork. While consumers select market outlets
for pork based on cleanliness, trust in sources, and the absence of disease in pork
sold, 99% of them still buy meat in traditional, wet markets. This, coupled with the
fact that meat quality is not traceable in the value chain and only 3% of respondents
trust in their regular meat supply, implies that the pig value chain, especially the formal/
modern retailing sector in Vietnam, has not yet gained consumer trust. Given
saturated pork demand with more than 95% of respondents planning to sustain or
decrease their pork consumption, it’s unlikely that pork consumption behaviour will
significantly change for the majority of Vietnamese consumers. Several potential implications
are drawn for upgrading the pig value chains: (i) Organizing small farms
into groups applying good practices that allow meat to be traceable and certified by
trusted institutions; (ii) Developing a quality assurance system that can be feasibly
established under smallholder conditions, and complies with minimum quality and
safety standards tailored to Vietnam’s context, (iii) Strengthening capacity to collect
appropriate market information to provide pig producers, particularly smallholders,
reliable meat demand and supply forecast to better serve their target consumers; and
(iv) Improving cost and quality competitiveness in pig value chains. These are important
considerations especially when Vietnam becomes deeply integrated into the
global and regional markets when the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership
Agreement is officially put into practice.