In Binh Thuy village, Quang Tri Province, where African swine fever (ASF) nearly wiped out the village's pigs, antibiotic-free organic rearing through "mosquito-net pig farming," which covers the surroundings of the pig barn with netting, has begun. According to a report by the local agriculture journal Nong nghiep Moi truong on July 25, 2026, the organic-agriculture company of the agricultural-inputs major Que Lam Group guarantees a full purchase for five years at a live weight of 65,000 VND/kg and subsidizes half of the initial investment. For Japanese sourcing managers who look at the upstream of pork, it is worth keeping an eye on as a real example of building a production area around contract purchasing and traceability.
Covering the pig barn with netting to physically block vector insects
The stage is the Thien My 1 area of Binh Thuy village. Farmers who lost pigs to ASF switched, on reopening, to organic pig farming that uses no antibiotics or drugs, at the recommendation of the province's agricultural-extension center and Que Lam. They enclose the outer perimeter of the pig barn with netting to block virus-carrying insects such as mosquitoes, flies, and cockroaches. Inside, the pigs are individually partitioned, equipped with a microbe-activated fermented bedding (bio-bed) and automatic watering, and the feed is unified to antibiotic-free organic feed. An ASF vaccine is not in practical widespread use, so the linchpin of disease prevention is thorough biological isolation. Not using antibiotics is not a story of loosening disease prevention; it is a design that replaces it with hygiene management through isolation and fermented bedding, and its direction aligns with export-oriented livestock that demands no medication and low residues.
Que Lam guarantees a full five-year purchase at 65,000 dong/kg and subsidizes half the initial investment
Under the 2026 support plan, 48 breeding pigs of about 100 kg on average are placed with 13 farming households. Ngo Xuan Linh introduced three breeding pigs in December 2025 and has entered his first round of breeding, while Nguyen Thi Hieu built a five-section pig barn and awaits shipping.
| Item | Figure | Yen equivalent (1 yen ≈ 170 VND) |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase price (live weight) | 65,000VND/kg | About 382 yen/kg |
| Purchase guarantee period | 5 years | — |
| Subsidy on initial investment | 50% | — |
| Number of supported households in 2026 | 13 households | — |
| Breeding pigs placed | 48 head (about 100 kg on average) | — |
All based on the same article in Nong nghiep Moi truong. The yen conversion is approximate, and since the price is on a live-weight basis, the effective unit price on a dressed-meat basis, after deducting carcass yield, rises above this.
A five-year fixed price makes farmers' reinvestment possible
The farmers' interest lies first in the price being readable as fixed for five years. For pig farming, which carries the double risk of the fear of losing every head to ASF and the wild swings of the market, a contract that is full-volume, long-term, and fixed-price makes the decision to reinvest possible. On the company side, Que Lam holds feed, breeding pigs, and purchasing vertically, securing a consistent organic-brand supply network. The province's extension center positions it as a good chance to steer the post-ASF rebuild toward safe, antibiotic-free production rather than the old ways. The method using fermented bedding links manure to composting and suppresses odor and wastewater, so for farmers who have faced the wall of being unable to win neighbors' understanding when rebuilding a pig barn, an environmentally low-load design becomes a condition of reopening itself.
How far does "contract purchasing + antibiotic-free + insect isolation" bring the upstream of livestock toward the managed type?
The pork Japan imports is mainly from Canada, the US, the EU, and Mexico; it is not at a stage where Vietnamese fresh pork lands on the dining table, and there is also the wall of ASF-free status. Even so, the "contract purchasing + antibiotic-free + insect isolation" package this case shows becomes a yardstick for measuring how far the upstream of Southeast Asian livestock products can come toward the managed type. In peripheral areas such as processed goods, seasoned processing, and pet-food raw materials, the attributes of no-medication and traceable are increasingly cutting into procurement requirements.
We previously took up the same Que Lam Group as a circular-agriculture complex in Ha Tinh that invested about 7.9 billion yen in five factories. The company's way of assembling feed, livestock, compost, and crops into a single ring is coming down even to small-scale pig farming in Quang Tri. The offtake type, in which a company guarantees price and sales channel and farmers hand over the full volume, connects to the same current of "from market to contract" as Nghe An Province, which guarantees a full purchase of a veteran's 25,000 chickens and and Nghe An Province, which turned a pig barn into frog-farming tanks after ASF.
Watch the continuation of the purchase price and the inspection system at fixed points
It is premature for Japanese buyers to enter direct procurement at this stage, but the points to observe are clear: the actual fulfillment of the five-year contract, the medication records and third-party certification that back up antibiotic-free claims, the guarantee of ASF-free status, and the appetite for developing into processing and export. Vietnam's pork is mainly for domestic consumption and exports are still small, but once upstream management of processed goods and feed raw materials is in order, the connection to neighboring countries and the Japanese market begins quietly from the processing stage. Whether a production area is building up a "record of not using drugs" is the key that opens that entrance.
Sources
Nong nghiep Moi truong, "Mac man nuoi lon huong huu co" (July 25, 2026)
