"We should take measures to control inflation and promote domestic production," said Animal Husbandry Department Head, Hoang Kim Giao at a conference held in Hanoi on 17 September.

Mr Giao added that the sector should intensify investment in breed production and supply while tightening the examination of breed origins and boosting vaccination for animals and poultry.

He also called on farmers to apply advanced technology to to improve animal husbandry's output in an effort to solve the sector's current difficulties.

The sector is struggling with numerous problems when its growth rate slowed down to 0.03 per cent in the first six months against its yearly target of 8 to 10 per cent.

Recently, the sector has faced double problems when feed prices skyrocketed by between 40 and 60 per cent, the prices of pork and chicken went down sharply, driving a number of farmers into huge loss-making.

President of the Animal Feed Association, Le Ba Lich, partly blamed the problem to the tax department to cut tariffs on meat imports to a level lower than the country's commitments to the World Trade Organisation.

The act has increased pressures on the industry as it has to battle low-priced imports, he said.

Statistics released by the Customs Office showed that the country imported over 64,600 tonnes of assorted meat in the first seven months of 2008. Chicken alone witnessed an increase of 1.5 times over the entire 2007 import volume.