Vietnam is the major market for Indian buffalo

Vietnam purchased over 600,000 tonnes of Indian buffalo in the 2015-2016 reported year. Value of US$1.9 billion at a unit value of US$3,293 per tonne. An article published over 12 months ago in Chinese media indicates that a proportion of the "grey" trade (smuggled meat) came via Vietnam.

Data sourced from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam shows the decline in the Vietnam domestic buffalo herd and the trend down in recent years of the cattle herd.

In the 7 months of 2016 Australia exported a total volume of 3,984 tonnes to Vietnam, mainly beef and beef offals. It is likely that a proportion of this trade finds its way via the grey channel into China.

Vietnam is a huge market for Australian live cattle exports with almost 283,000 head shipped in the fiscal year ended June 2016, compared to 304,000 the previous year. The market and trade has been plagued by adverse publicity and supply chain breaches. The record published by Agriculture Department dates back to 2013 for Vietnam. Investigations 106 and 104 are still in progress. A breach notified in February #97 was covered in a first part of year release.