Good practices for pork value chains in emerging countries

Good practices for pork value chains in emerging countries.

Patrice Gautier, Dr. Vet.

[email protected]

Managing Risks in Emerging Pork Markets: an international south-south symposiumHanoi, 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 …

Livestock DevelopmentAnimal Health

Veterinary Public Health

Evaluation & Strengthening of National

Veterinary Services

+ West Africa

Asia + Africa

ASVELIS’ direct activities related to the pork sector:

Vietnamese Village Thai-Burmese Village1. Increasing crossbred piglet production with smallholders.

3. Bringing safe pork to Hanoi consumers(to be started in 2012)

2. Animal Health services to medium pig farmers around Hanoi.

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 likely evolution over the future.

Defining what pork for what kind of customers.

Lack of Business Plan Planning (human, physical, financial resources …)

Overproduction or inability to meet customer demand after initial success.

Decide on initial production capacity and subsequent increases.

Capacity Building,

Specific Activities,

Projects and Programs 

PVSGap Analysis

PVS Evaluation

PVS PathwayFollow-Up Missions

Veterinary Legislation

Public / PrivatePartnerships

VeterinaryEducation

Laboratories

« Diagnosis » « Prescription »

« Treatment »

including Veterinary Services’ Strategic Priorities

Strategic Planning applied to Strengthening Veterinary Services

Farming

Issues Solutions & Good Practices

BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS

Healthy or apparently healthy pigs with zoonotic parasites, JE, HEV, flu etc.

Active & passive disease surveillance (serology, coprology, post-mortem inspection …), prevention …

Sick pigs going in the meat chain with zoonotic bacteria.

Biosecurity + Vet supervision + Compensation + Ethics.

CHEMICAL HAZARDS

Systematic high level of antimicrobial residues because of wrong factory feed.

Use of “final stage” factory feed from a reliable feed manufacturer at least 10 days before slaughtering.

Systematic high level of hormone residues because of farmer’s administration & trader’s push.

Strict regulations about vet medicines + laboratory testing + ethics + heavy punishment.

Irregular high levels of antimicrobial residues because of pig sickness before slaughtering (pushed by salesmen).

Biosecurity + Vet supervision + Compensation + Ethics + Laboratory testing in meat.

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).

SlaughteringIssues Solutions & Good Practices

Even when good slaughtering practices: lack of traceability => biological and chemical hazards.

Slaughterers to be forced to know the origin of animals (farms)?

Lack of basic guidelines about design for small slaughterhouses.

Issues guidelines. See layout examples (below slides) on small-scale pig slaughterhouses.

Investment Capital: USD 15,000 (for building; white tiles; basic equipment; chilling room; waste treatment)

Needs public support (grant matching and / or loans).Depreciation over 10 years => USD 20 per week.

Poor hygiene practices in both slaughter slabs and large slaughterhouses.

Issue guide to good slaughtering practices.Training of stakeholders.

Lack of awareness about the need of rapidly chilling the meat if it is not going to be consumed quickly => probably one explanation for the ILRI research result on microbiological contamination of pork meat at supermarkets.

Need for a regulation that forces the use of post-slaughtering rapid chilling for meat to be stored over few days (supermarkets, shops etc.).Training of stakeholders.

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.

• 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.

Small-Scale poultry slaughterhouse in Vietnam.

Marketing, retailing & catering

Issues Solutions & Good Practices

Variable hygiene practices at retailing & catering stages.

Issue guidelines for retailers and caterers.Upgrade regulations.

Lack of knowledge in cold chain aspects. Training of stakeholders.

Even when good retailing / catering practices and when good external aspect of meat: lack of traceability => biological and chemical hazards.

Retailers and caterers should start to ask for origin of product (farms & slaughterhouses) and visit them.

Inadequate communication with customers.Lack of branding.

Training of stakeholders.

Insufficient laboratory analyses especially on chemical residues.

Request laboratory analyses based on risk assessments.

Customers not willing to pay a premium price (>20%).

Farmers’ organizations or farmer-vet partnership (ASVELIS example) to cover the entire value chain from farm to table, therefore with a control on traceability, products’ selling prices etc.

LaboratoriesIssues Solutions & Good Practices

Testing for micro-organisms (Salmonella, Campylobacter etc.):- No serotyping.- Not looking at prevalence according to the

production stage (farm, slaughterhouse etc.)

Training of laboratory staff; increase number of testing for staff to acquire experience etc.Better design of protocols for sampling.

Testing for antimicrobial residues: high cost & lack of sensitivity of current methods.

Use of cheap/rapid test (Premi-Test).

Insufficient testing for heavy metals, hormones, melamine etc.

Need risk assessments & more testing.

Overall deficiencies of laboratories (opening hours; standard operating procedures; certification etc.)

Review and repeat the CSIRO-led assessment of the 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 the PVS Evaluation of Veterinary Services of Vietnam.

Gradual implementation of the strengthening program decided by OIE & Vietnam’s Department of Animal Health (PVS Gap Analysis report – 2010).

One part-time Veterinarian

One pig farmer10 sows => 4 fatteners per week

One small slaughterhouse

A small retailing outlet

500 initial consumers(0.5 kg per person per week =

250 kg of meat per week)

Starting small is possible.

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 villagers

Pork cuts “imported” from 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!