With the volume of imported Australian cows in 2014 projected to far exceed estimates, Vietnam will likely remain the second largest importer of the cattle behind Indonesia, data revealed by a local livestock association show.

The Vietnam Livestock Association had estimated that the country would import 150,000 cows from Australia in 2014, but the figure was already more than 152,000 animals in the Jan-Oct period.

In October alone, 17,000 Australian cows were shipped to the Southeast Asian country, according to data of the Australian Cattle Genetics Export Agency.

“So it is expected that the total number of cattle imported from Australia last year will top 180,000, an increase of more than 150 percent from 2013,” Nguyen Dang Van, chairman of the Vietnam Livestock Association, said, pending official figures.

Vietnam imported 70,000 cows from Australia in 2013, still second to Indonesia, according to statistics.

If imports of cattle from other markets are counted, Vietnam imported more than 210,000 animals between January and November last year, according to customs figures.

There were also some 50,000 cows from Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia brought to the country via the border, which were not included in the customs data, according to the Vietnam Livestock Association.

Vietnam has huge demand for beef during the Lunar New Year, or Tet, which falls in mid-February.

“The market will continue to rely on Australian beef as domestic supply has fallen short,” Truong Thi Dong, director of Trung Dong Co. Ltd., an Australian cow importer, said.

The increasing prices of Australian beef do not discourage Vietnamese consumers from choosing the product as they have lost trust in domestic meat, which is hit by food safety issues, Dong added.

Australian beef is now up to VND30,000 a kg more expensive than it was in mid-2014 thanks to soaring import prices, according to industry insiders.

The meat now fetches VND245,000-300,000 (US$11.53-16.94) a kg, depending on the part of the cow it comes from.

“The meat is imported at $3.2 a kg, so retail prices are not so high,” Luu Son Thuy, director of Thuy Ha Co. Ltd., another cattle importer, said.

The Vietnamese livestock sector, meanwhile, has suffered slumping prices due to abundant supply.

“I was able to sell my pigs at VND55,000 [$2.59] a kg in mid-2014 but traders now buy them at only VND48,000 [$2.26] a kg,” Trang Quang Trung, who runs a 1,000-pig farm in the southern province of Dong Nai, lamented.

“I’m afraid prices will continue shrinking when Tet nears.”

Local livestock firms are all concerned about sales during Tet, Vietnam's biggest celebration.

“The huge imports of foreign meat only exacerbate the abundant domestic supply, so falling prices are inevitable,” the director of a Dong Nai-based livestock company said.

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