Exporting live pigs to Cambodia needs to follow official channels

The Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries on May 19th sent a document to the Cambodian border provinces, stating that outbreaks of African Swine Fever (ASF) has spread throughout the Asian nations.

In order to protect the country from  ASF invasion, the Cambodian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries asked the authorities of the Cambodian border provinces to prevent the illegal imports of live pigs, pork and pork products into the country.

It is forecasted that in the coming time, Cambodia will enhance inspection and control of unofficial import activities for live pigs, pork and pork products on the Cambodia-Vietnam border. Along with that, the Cambodian authorities will tighten quarantine for pork and pork products imported across land border gates with Vietnam.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade recommended that businesses and traders exporting live pigs, pork and pork products on the border with Cambodia should pay attention to exporting by official channels, meeting the requirements on hygiene and food safety as well as preparing all necessary permits for animal quarantine.

Cambodia' s demand for pork  is about 7,000-8,000 pigs per day ( a pig weighs roughly 60kg). Meanwhile, the domestic supply can meet 6,000 pigs per day and it still needs to import over 1,000 pigs per day. To meet that demand, the Cambodian private traders have imported live pigs mainly from the neighboring countries such as Vietnam and Thailand.

The Cambodian traders mainly import live pigs and pork by unofficial channels in order to save time, reduce costs and to avoid applying for animal quarantine inspection certificates as required by the authorities in the two countries.