Good practices for pork value chains in emerging
countries.
Patrice Gautier, Dr. Vet.
patrice@asvelis.com
Managing Risks in Emerging Pork Markets: an international south-south symposium
Hanoi, April 2012

Born as a pig farmer in Brittany … Trained as a vet in Europe …
Trained as a livestock extension worker in Vietnam …

Since 2007 …
Asia + Africa
+ West Africa
Livestock Development Evaluation &
Animal Health Strengthening of National
Veterinary Public Health Veterinary Services

ASVELIS’ direct activities related to the pork sector:
Vietnamese Village Thai-Burmese Village
1. Increasing crossbred piglet production with smallholders.
2. Animal Health services to
medium pig farmers around
Hanoi.
3. Bringing safe pork to Hanoi
consumers
(to be started in 2012)

About this presentation:
• An attempt to give some initial guidance to those who want to
engage into (or organize) the farming / slaughtering / retailing of
pork meat and get as close as possible to OIE & CODEX
international standards.
• Issues / Solutions / Good Practices at various stages of the value
chain and for various private and public stakeholders:
• Strategic planning.
• Farming.
• Slaughtering.
• Marketing / Retailing / Catering.
• Laboratories.
• Veterinary Administration.

The level of upgrades in pork value chain depends
on the current situation and expected objectives.
• Backyard pigs for very local consumption:
• Biological hazards > chemical hazards.
• Focus on zoonotic diseases.
• Focus on basic hygiene at house-slaughtering.
• Small & medium scale fatteners for “within-the-district” consumption:
• Focus on chemical residues & zoonotic diseases.
• Focus on higher hygiene at slaughter slabs & small slaughterhouses.
• Medium & large-scale fatteners for urban markets:
• Focus even more on chemical residues.
• Implement strict hygiene practices in well-designed & well-operated small /
medium slaughterhouses, with basic chilling facilities.
• Should be the only ones allowed to sell outside district/province.

Strategic Planning
Issues Solutions& Good Practices
At National level
Lack of consultation between stakeholders. Identification of public & private stakeholders.
Meetings between representatives of various
stakeholder groups.
Poor description of the current situation. Situational Analysis / “Where are we now?”
Lack of strategy and accurate objectives. Strategic Objectives / “Where do we want to be in
the future?”
Lack or inadequacy of projects / programs. Development Plan / “How do we get there?”
Coordination!
For a pork entrepreneur
Lack of understanding of customer demand & its Defining what pork for what kind of customers.
likely evolution over the future.
Lack of Business Plan Planning (human, physical, financial resources
…)
Overproduction or inability to meet customer Decide on initial production capacity and
demand after initial success. subsequent increases.

Strategic Planning applied to Strengthening Veterinary Services
« Treatment »
Capacity Building,
Specific Activities,
Projects and Programs
Veterinary
Legislation
« Diagnosis » « Prescription »
Public / Private
Partnerships
PVS Pathway
PVS PVS
Follow-Up
Evaluation Gap Analysis
Veterinary Missions
including Education
Veterinary Services’
Strategic Priorities
Laboratories

Farming
Issues Solutions& Good Practices
BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS
Healthy or apparently healthy pigs with zoonotic Active & passive disease surveillance (serology,
parasites, JE, HEV, flu etc. coprology, post-mortem inspection …), prevention …
Sick pigs going in the meat chain with zoonotic Biosecurity + Vet supervision + Compensation +
bacteria. Ethics.
CHEMICAL HAZARDS
Systematic high level of antimicrobial residues Use of “final stage” factory feed from a reliable feed
because of wrong factory feed. manufacturer at least 10 days before slaughtering.
Systematic high level of hormone residues because Strict regulations about vet medicines + laboratory
of farmer’s administration & trader’s push. testing + ethics + heavy punishment.
Irregular high levels of antimicrobial residues Biosecurity + Vet supervision + Compensation +
because of pig sickness before slaughtering (pushed Ethics + Laboratory testing in meat.
by salesmen).
Heavy metals (from water etc.) Laboratory testing.
PHYSICAL HAZARDS
Needles … Farmers & vets’ attention.

New suggested
classification for pig
farming systems in
Vietnam:
=> Avoiding the terms
“commercial”,
“smallholders”,
“family-based” …
=> Any of these
systems can produce
safe pork and any of
these systems can
produce unsafe pork!

Pre-condition:
Knowing & complying with OIE international standards.
• OIE Animal Health Code for
Terrestrial Animals.
• Useful documents:
• OIE-FAO Guide to Good Farming
Practices for Animal Production
Food Safety. 2011.
• The Pork Quality Assurance Plus
(USA).

Slaughtering
Issues Solutions& Good Practices
Even when good slaughtering practices: lack of Slaughterers to be forced to know the origin of animals
traceability => biological and chemical hazards. (farms)?
Lack of basic guidelines about design for small Issues guidelines. See layout examples (below slides) on
slaughterhouses. small-scale pig slaughterhouses.
Investment Capital: USD 15,000 (for building; Needs public support (grant matching and / or loans).
white tiles; basic equipment; chilling room; waste Depreciation over 10 years => USD 20 per week.
treatment)
Poor hygiene practices in both slaughter slabs Issue guide to good slaughtering practices.
and large slaughterhouses. Training of stakeholders.
Lack of awareness about the need of rapidly Need for a regulation that forces the use of post-
chilling the meat if it is not going to be consumed slaughtering rapid chilling for meat to be stored over few
quickly => probably one explanation for the ILRI days (supermarkets, shops etc.).
research result on microbiological contamination Training of stakeholders.
of pork meat at supermarkets.
Ante & post-mortem inspection. Training of public veterinarians; delegation to private
vets.
Water quality Need further R&D on cost-effective systems.
Waste management Need further R&D on cost-effective systems.
Animal Welfare Reduce transport time; use simple electro narcosis
shears.

From APDC
Training Center in
Philippines

From one foreign specialist.

Small-Scale poultry slaughterhouse in Vietnam.
• Adapted from France.
• Initial investment = USD 15,000.
• Capacity: up to 500-1,000 poultry per day.
• Can be used for 10-50 pigs per day with some adjustments.

Marketing, retailing &catering
Issues Solutions& Good Practices
Variable hygiene practices at retailing & catering Issue guidelines for retailers and caterers.
stages. Upgrade regulations.
Lack of knowledge in cold chain aspects. Training of stakeholders.
Even when good retailing / catering practices and Retailers and caterers should start to ask for
when good external aspect of meat: lack of origin of product (farms & slaughterhouses) and
traceability => biological and chemical hazards. visit them.
Inadequate communication with customers. Training of stakeholders.
Lack of branding.
Insufficient laboratory analyses especially on Request laboratory analyses based on risk
chemical residues. assessments.
Customers not willing to pay a premium price Farmers’ organizations or farmer-vet partnership
(>20%). (ASVELIS example) to cover the entire value
chain from farm to table, therefore with a control
on traceability, products’ selling prices etc.

Laboratories
Issues Solutions& Good Practices
Testing for micro-organisms (Salmonella, Training of laboratory staff; increase number of
Campylobacter etc.): testing for staff to acquire experience etc.
- No serotyping. Better design of protocols for sampling.
- Not looking at prevalence according to the
production stage (farm, slaughterhouse etc.)
Testing for antimicrobial residues: high cost & lack of Use of cheap/rapid test (Premi-Test).
sensitivity of current methods.
Insufficient testing for heavy metals, hormones, Need risk assessments& more testing.
melamine etc.
Overall deficiencies of laboratories (opening hours; Review and repeat the CSIRO-led assessment of the
standard operating procedures; certification etc.) capacities of national laboratories in ASEAN.
Encourage the development of private laboratories.

Veterinary Administration
Issues Solutions& Good Practices
Described in the OIE reports (2005 & 2010) on Gradual implementation of the strengthening
the PVS Evaluation of Veterinary Services of program decided by OIE & Vietnam’s Department
Vietnam. of Animal Health (PVS Gap Analysis report –
2010).

Starting small is possible.
One pig farmer
10 sows => 4 fatteners per week
One part-time One small slaughterhouse
Veterinarian
A small retailing outlet
500 initial consumers
(0.5 kg per person per week =
250 kg of meat per week)

1. Urgent actions needed to help small pig producers feed
their own villages & townships, before they get all invaded
with cheap pork from large-scale pig sector.
Local pork from Pork cuts “imported” from
villagers large-scale farms

2. Is it acceptable that children in many emerging
countries are exposed to high levels of chemical residues
on an almost daily basis through the consumption of
animal-derived products and other food?

Diversity & complexity of constraints & opportunities of the pork
sector in developing countries.
+
National & International funding available but inadequately used
overall.
+
Private sector investing or willing to invest
=
Strategic Planning Exercise (Participatory):
An essential tool to start!
Thanks for your attention!