The livestock sector in Vietnam is undergoing a major shift toward higher-quality production, with transparent traceability and stronger value-chain linkages emerging as key solutions for sustainable growth.
On August 14, in Hai Phong, the National Agricultural Extension Center, in coordination with the Hai Phong Department of Agriculture and Environment, held the 2026 Agricultural Extension Dialogue under the theme ‘Solutions for Developing Livestock Production Linked to Traceability and Product Market Linkages’.
The event brought together hundreds of delegates, including experts, scientists, representatives from government agencies, businesses, cooperatives, agricultural extension officers and farmers.
The role of traceability in livestock production
According to the National Agricultural Extension Center, livestock production plays a pivotal role in Vietnam’s agricultural sector by ensuring food supplies, creating employment and providing raw materials for the processing industry.
Despite the impacts of disease outbreaks and natural disasters, livestock production maintained positive growth in 2025:
- ✅ Live pig production: 5.389 million tonnes, up 3.9%.
- ✅ Poultry meat: 2.602 million tonnes, up 5.9%.
- ✅ Poultry eggs: 21.4 billion eggs, up 5.3%.
- ✅ Fresh milk: Approximately 1.3 million tonnes, up 5.5%.
However, as market requirements continue to rise, the sector needs to shift from growth driven primarily by production scale toward greater quality, efficiency and added value.
Vietnam’s Livestock Development Strategy for 2021-2030 emphasizes organizing production around value chains, linking production with processing and markets. Within this framework, traceability helps strengthen quality and disease-control systems, while market linkages provide the economic incentive for farmers to maintain accurate production data.
At its core, traceability should be built on a complete and reliable data system covering production, slaughtering, processing and distribution, not simply on labels or QR codes. By 2025, Hanoi had established 172 value-chain linkages and issued traceability codes for more than 14,000 products.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Environment also launched the Vietnam Agricultural Product Traceability System in late 2025 and issued an implementation plan in early 2026.
Practical results from value-chain agricultural extension models
Through agricultural extension projects, a number of successful models have been replicated across the country:
- ✅ VietGAHP pig farming: Delivered 5-10% higher selling prices and supported brands such as ‘Que Lam Pork’, ‘Cong Danh Sausage’ and ‘Thien Thuan Tuong Fresh Pork’.
- ✅ Biosecure poultry farming: Helped establish brands such as ‘Tan Tien Hill Chicken’ and ‘Ba Vi Salt-Baked Chicken’.
- ✅ VietGAHP cattle farming linked to circular economy models: Increased efficiency by 19.7–23.5% and supported products such as ‘Cat Ly Ha Giang H’Mong Beef’ and ‘HLBC High-Quality Beef’.
- ✅ Indigenous livestock: Supported the development of numerous three- and four-star OCOP products, including ‘Thu Hang Roasted Duck’, ‘Dong Xuyen Sea Duck’, and honey products such as ‘Tam An Honey’, ‘Bo De Honey’, ‘Bac Ha Honey’ and ‘Su Vet Honey’.
Experience from these models has highlighted several important lessons. Traceability must begin with tightly controlled production at the farm level.
Organizing farmers into cooperatives is also critical, alongside early and sustained engagement from businesses. At the same time, the agricultural extension system serves as a key bridge for organizing stakeholders, connecting participants and improving the performance of the entire value chain.
Addressing gaps in value-chain organization and data management
Despite positive progress, livestock production linked to traceability still faces several challenges:
- ✅ Production remains small-scale and fragmented in many areas, while value-chain linkages are often not sustainable.
- ✅ Production records and data updates are not maintained regularly at many farms and facilities.
- ✅ Slaughtering, processing, storage and logistics infrastructure remains fragmented and insufficiently integrated.
- ✅ Price premiums are not yet strong enough to provide sufficient economic incentives for producers, while the management capacity of cooperatives and livestock households remains limited.
Le Quoc Thanh, Director of the National Agricultural Extension Center, welcomed the strong participation of representatives from government agencies, research institutes, businesses and leading farmers from Hai Phong, Quang Ninh and Hung Yen.
He called on delegates to focus discussions on addressing three core issues:
- ✅ Restructuring production to build sustainable value-chain linkages.
- ✅ Developing a substantive and highly interoperable traceability system.
- ✅ Expanding markets to create fair economic incentives across the entire value chain.
Hai Phong’s livestock sector and commitment to sustainable development
Speaking at the dialogue, Vu Ba Cong, Deputy Director of the Hai Phong Department of Agriculture and Environment, said that in 2025:
- ✅ The city’s livestock production value exceeded USD 499.4 million, accounting for more than 32% of total agricultural production value.
- ✅ The pig population exceeded 610,000 head, while the poultry population surpassed 26.1 million birds.
- ✅ Hai Phong had 1,042 livestock farms, accounting for more than 51% of the city’s total livestock population.
Alongside this production scale, Hai Phong has gradually established a foundation for commercial and safe livestock production, with 18 concentrated livestock production areas, around 200 efficiently operated farms, 100 disease-free certified facilities and 88 OCOP-certified livestock products.
Several facilities have adopted VietGAHP standards and QR-code-based traceability.
The city has also planned 50 concentrated livestock production zones and areas linked to high-tech slaughtering facilities by 2040, with a vision toward 2050.
“The Hai Phong Department of Agriculture and Environment is committed to continuing its cooperation with the National Agricultural Extension Center, central agencies, local authorities, businesses, cooperatives, scientists and livestock producers to standardize production, improve quality, promote traceability, develop value-chain linkages and expand markets, thereby increasing the value and competitiveness of Hai Phong’s livestock products,” Vu Ba Cong emphasized.
Closing the dialogue, Le Minh Linh, Deputy Director of the National Agricultural Extension Center, said the center would fully review and consolidate the recommendations and proposals raised during the event to advise the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.
The center will also continue working closely with local authorities, businesses and cooperatives to promote value-chain-based livestock production, strengthen food safety and improve market access and product distribution.