Viet Nam will continue import meat, salt, sugar, animal feed and steel products for this year, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has predicted.
This year, total domestic demand for all meat products would increase 6.5-7 per cent to 2.9 million tonnes, the ministry said. There would be a resultant shortfall of 90,000-100,000 tonnes of meat which would need to be imported.
The ministry also estimated Viet Nam would import 182,000 tonnes of salt this year because domestic demand was expected to reach 1.35 million tonnes while local production would be just over 1 million tonnes.
The country would also import 250,000 tonnes of sugar this year, lower than 2010's 300,000 tonnes, the ministry said.
Domestic demand would reach 1.3-1.4 million tonnes while domestic supply would be roughly 1 million tonnes.
Animal feed was another of the essential goods that would need to be imported in 2011 because domestic supply would total only 15.2 million tonnes of the estimated total demand of 20.6 million tonnes.
Total imports would reach 7.7 million tonnes this year against 6 million last year.
Meanwhile, steel imports were predicted to reach 1 million tonnes this year as the domestic demand was estimated at 6.5 million tonnes while local production was expected to reach just 5.8 million tonnes. /.