Vietnam has a total population of over 70 million meat-type duck, ranking third in the world in terms of herd size. In Vietnam, Mavin is the second integrator to participate in this field and will focus on the improvement of breeds and the application of new animal husbandry method with high efficiency to improve the performance of the sector and to strengthen the Group's position in animal protein industry.
A contracted duck farm with Mavin with semi-industrial farming model
Duck farming ranked second in Vietnam's poultry production sector, supported by the favorable farming conditions especially in the Mekong River Delta and Red River Delta. However, the development of the sector is still at a slow mode being depended on small-scale production, serving the main domestic consumption demand (export is only about 10%).
The biggest obstacles for this industry, as Mr Nguyen Anh Tuan, Deputy General Director of Mavin Group shared with Asian Poultry Magazine, are mainly in the issues of breeds and breeding methods which have not brought about high efficiency.
"This is the strength of Mavin Group. We will focus on improved breeding solutions and will be the first company to adopt a semi-industrial breeding model in Vietnam to improve productivity," said Mr Tuan.
First duck meat value chain
While most of duck meat producers in Vietnam are focusing on either only breeding stock supplying, or feed production, or commercial farming, Mavin as one of a very few companies in Vietnam that owns a closed value chain "From Farm to Table", builds a complete value chain in duck meat production, where it controls all of the above mentioned factors.
Mavin's model of livestock production chain has a number of advantages to overcome immediately the problems of that household farms might encounter: First, providing quality breeding animal from imported high quality GP breeds with the aim of developing high quality, fast growth rate, disease-resistant commercial ducks to the farm. Secondly, the application of advanced and highly automated breeding processes reduces labor costs. Thirdly, farmers are supported with animal feed and veterinary medicine thanks to the closed supply chain of Mavin. Consequently, farmers can stabilize their income, regardless of market fluctuations.
Mavin has experienced big success in the building of such value chain for porkers. As a result, after 6 years of implementing the model (since 2011), Mavin's contract farm system has expanded at a rate of up to 150% in 2017 and 2018.
With the support of Mavin, pig growers learned and changed their concepts of animal husbandry. The old ineffective habits of industrial pig breeding have been replaced by advanced techniques, more automation, more cost saving, and better efficiency.
The Group intends to develop the same chain for ducks.
"Just like other value chains we have created with other livestock animals, our duck breeding will also follow a closed production system from breeding stock production, feed production, commercial farming, veterinary medicine secured and finally slaughtering, processing according to HACCP and ISO 22000 standards, paving the way for our export of duck meat in future," said Mr Tuan.
Building duck breeding system
Currently Mavin has developed three breeding farms in Hung Yen, Phu Tho, and Thai Binh provinces, with a designed capacity that can supply 12 million DOCs each year. In 2019, it is expected that this breeding farm system can produce about 1 million DOCs and start supplying to contract farms.
Mavin's DOC duck product - branded Mavin Grimaud, is a commercial duck product imported from French Grimaud Group.
Mavin imports GP breeding ducks every 6 months to ensure new, high-quality and well-adapted varieties to Vietnam's hot and humid climate conditions. Through advanced selective technology, Mavin produced high quality DOC duck with white fur, thin and lean neck, high lean meat ratio, thick muscle, meeting the preferences of domestic consumers.
In addition, for breeders, this duck breed has high efficiency, low feed consumption conversion ratio (average FCR = 2.3), high growth rate, short culture time (about 48 days, reaching 3.3kg/duck). In regards of processing, this duck has a low loss rate during slaughtering compared to other duck breeds.
Semi-industrial farming model
Mavin is the first company in Vietnam to adopt a semi-industrial farming model in meat duck breeding, where it transfers advanced livestock production experiences and techniques, and supplies breeding animals and feed to the contracted farmers.
Mavin also applies advanced techniques in duck farming such as automatic feeding and drinking, antibiotic-free feed, regular vaccination and regular health monitoring, thereby reducing losses in livestock, shortening the time of finishing.
"Mavin's commercial farm system is mainly built basing on the cooperation with farmers. Such cooperation will boost the advantages of both sides and result in best performance and sustainable development," said Mr Tuan.
In the past, meat duck raising was mainly based on free-range method, which poses many risks of disease, untraceable, low efficiency, and is the main barrier for Vietnamese duck products to enter the international markets, explained Mr Tuan.
"When cooperating with Mavin, farmers could avoid such risks, firstly due to guaranteed seed quality, good feed quality, highly effective breeding model, and being trained by Mavin's expert team, counseling them during the breeding process," he said.
In the semi-industrial model of Mavin, livestock households with minimum 1 ha or more (with ponds or without ponds) can choose to raise the birds in closed houses or half-housed area. The capacity of such farm is at least 10,000 ducks.
Targeting 40% market share
With the development new farming model and a sustainable production chain, Mavin is aiming to achieve a 40% market share in 5 years.
"The growth of the industry will be positive. However, it will mainly be structural shift, ie the direction of intensive farming, high quality, high food safety will prevail. This is in line with the general development of the livestock industry and the consumption trend in the coming time," said Mr Tuan.
"Duck meat is still one of the main meat sources of Vietnamese people in the south, and will be more popular in the North. This is the driven force to develop duck industry," he added.
Mavin has a clear advantage of slaughtering and processing duck meat with a food processing plant, which helps the company creating food safety duck meat products to serve the market.
Development plan for 2019
2019 is an important year marking 15 years of operation of Mavin Group in Vietnam market. With a lot of big and ambitious projects, the action strategy chosen by Mavin features Innovation and Efficiency.
Some key animal husbandry projects will be implemented in this year, including:
+ An aquaculture production for export project of 400 ha in Tuyen Quang province;
+ Duck breeding project - Producing 1 million commercial meat ducks each year;
+ Project of a center for developing high quality and economically efficient native breed chicken in Hoa Binh province;
+ Project on raising pigs and broilers on a scale of 100 hectares in Gia Lai and Tay Nguyen provinces;
+ Project of a 45 ha breeding center for pig, chicken and duck in Dong Thap province;
+ Project of a 100 ha high-tech pig breeding center in Nghe An province.
At the same time, Mavin also chooses 2019 as the year to officially deploy to operate the enterprise overall management system - SAP-ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning).
According to Dao Manh Luong, General Director of the Group, Mavin will aim to be a large technology group in the agricultural sector, with the pioneering application of automation and Internet of Things (IoT) in operation, management and production activities, in which ERP will be a key project in the coming years to realize this goal.
Source: Asian Poultry Magazine - June/July 2019