At this time, Nguyen Van Tan (born in 1978) in Hoa An village, Hop Duc commune (Tan Yen district) strictly follows the disease prevention process in his family's pig breeding area. Along with cleaning the barns, Tan sprays disinfectant and mosquito repellent daily. In particular, the entry into the breeding area is strictly controlled and only he and his wife can "access" the pigs. According to Tan, although diseases in pigs are not as serious as in 2019, hidden risks always remain. To protect 70 pigs for the Lunar New Year festival, the family pays heed to disease prevention and control.

Pigs serving the Tet market of Nguyen Van Tan's family in Hop Duc commune (Tan Yen district).

In fact, after 2019, heavily influenced by African swine fever and recommended by local authorities, livestock households, cooperatives and concentrated livestock farms all have strictly implemented disease prevention and control measures. In Viet Yen district, in order to ensure the supply of more than 5 tonnes of commercial pork to the market during this Lunar New Year festival, these days, the district Agricultural Technical Service Center has cooperated with veterinarians in communes and townships to regularly come to livestock farming households to provide instructions on how to prevent cold for pigs. Similarly, in the farms of Thanh Thao Business Cooperative in Xuan Huong commune (Lang Giang district), all measures are applied to ensure the best conditions for the pigs to develop.

In fact, to meet the increasing demand of consumers, pig raising households and especially cooperatives have always paid attention to diversifying products from pork. For example, at Thanh Thao Business Cooperative, along with traditional products such as pork, sausages and pork rolls, this Tet holiday, the cooperative will have new products such as pork spring rolls, Chinese sausage and pig ear paste. In order to bring quality products to customers, along with six retail points in Bac Giang, Lang Son and Hanoi, the cooperative opened more sales channels through the system of "hot lines" as well as social networks. Similarly, at Binh Minh Organic Agriculture Cooperative (Hiep Hoa district), along with packaged preliminarily processed pork, pork-pie, bacon and ham which have affirmed their footholds in the market, this Lunar New Year, the cooperative will put three OCOP products for sale, including herbal pork, steamed pork-pie and steamed herbal pork rolls.

Consumers choose to buy pork from Thanh Thao Business Cooperative (Lang Giang district).

Nguyen Ngoc Hai, Director of Binh Minh Organic Agriculture Cooperative, said: "With the motto "delicious, clean, healthy", we focus on producing and bring products that are safe and have clear origin to the market. Prioritizing OCOP products, we want to provide food with safety, hygiene, quality, and origin for consumers”.

According to the Sub-department of Livestock and Animal Health under the provincial Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, by the end of last year, the province's total pigs exceeded 1 million, up 20 percent compared to the same period in 2019. In the third quarter alone, the province supplied to the market about 70,000 tonnes of pork. It is expected that about 40,000 tonnes will be put on sale this Lunar New Year holiday.

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Sy Quyet