Pig farmers and merchants have up to five days from Wednesday to adapt to Ho Chi Minh City’s origin traceablitity requirements, after which time non-traceable pigs will be prohibited from entering the southern hub.

The ultimatum was declared by the municipal Department of Industry and Trade during a press conference on Wednesday.

Accordingly, merchants who wish to sell slaughtered pigs at the city’s major wholesale markets of Hoc Mon and Binh Dien will be required to have activated tracking tags on all their meat in no more than three and five days, respectively.

Tracking tags, each printed with a unique QR code, allow the tracking of a pig’s journey from farm to slaughterhouse to wholesale market where the meat is purchased for supermarket shelves or market stalls.

As of Monday, Ho Chi Minh City has banned all pigs lacking traceable origins from being sold on the local market in an iron-fisted move to improve food safety in the city.

On the first day of the regulation’s implementation, hundreds of pig merchants who were barred from entering wholesale markets due to their their meat’s lack of tracking tags rallied outside the venues to object the ban.

Ho Chi Minh City authorities eventually gave in, insisting that the ban will eventually be enforced.

On Wednesday, the municipal Department of Industry and Trade announced that an agreement had been reached between merchants and city officials that will allow for a transition period, after which, those who do not comply with regulations will be subject to harsh penalties, said Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, deputy director of the department.

Despite objections from several merchants, there has been a rise in the percentage of origin-traceable pigs arriving at the two wholesale markets since the new regulation took effect on Monday, according to statistics from the department.

At Binh Dien Market in District 8, six percent of the pigs received on Wednesday could be traced, compared to the previous count of zero.

At Hoc Mon Market in Hoc Mon District, the number rose 52 points, from 24 percent to 76 percent between Monday and Wednesday.

Last November, it was announced that Ho Chi Minh City consumers would be able to scan QR codes on pork packaging to obtain information regarding its origin.

The information would include details on where each pig was raised, when and where it was slaughtered, and from which wholesale market its meat was distributed.

The initiative was officially launched citywide in January in a bid to bring significant improvements in food hygiene and food security.

The latest ban on pigs of unknown origin is expected to provide the necessary legal grounds for authorities to tighten controls over the quality of meat, according to Hoa.