Vietnam spent billions of dollars each year on importing animal feed,nearly 40 percent of which came from China, head of the Ministry ofAgriculture and Rural Development's Husbandry Department Hoang Thanh Vansaid at a conference late August.

In the first six monthsof this year, the country paid about 2.42 billion USD to import 5.9million tonnes of animal feed, increasing 55 percent and 29 percent inquantity and value from the same period last year. The imported feedincluded corn, wheat, soybean, fish powder and rice bran.

Vietnamalso spent billions of dollars on animal breeds. The country importedmore than 1,600 pigs and nearly 945,000 poultry for breeding purposes inthe first seven months of this year, costing 1.45 million USD and 3.67million USD respectively.

Van said the country has toimport more feed and breeding stock to meet the increasing demand oflocal producers. While the country could produce more than 1 milliontonnes of corn each year, local demand had risen to 5-6 million.

"We need to shift a number of areas used for rice cultivation to planting corn so we can increase the local supply," he said.

Ministerof Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat said that the animalhealth sector should also pay more attention to animal diseaseprevention and control, management of animal medicine and food safetyand hygiene. The husbandry sector also needed restructuring in order toboost the competitiveness of its products, Phat said.-VNA