Pork accounts for 75 percent of the total meat consumption in Vietnam each year, but the country still lacks a supply chain to provide safe pork for consumers, according to its Department of Livestock Production.

Vietnam consumes 3.5-3.7 million tons of pork per annum, local daily newspaper Vietnam News quoted the department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development as reporting on Thursday.

According to the department's recent surveys in the capital city of Hanoi, the two northern provinces of Bac Giang and Vinh Phuc, Ho Chi Minh City and the southern province of Dong Nai, most pig farm owners did not buy breeding pigs and they often selected healthy baby pigs from their available pig farms to raise.

Therefore, the quality of breeding pigs is not sustainable.

Additionally, modern abattoirs in the five localities were not operating at full capacity because people still preferred to use traditional slaughter houses. As estimated, the modern abattoirs only operated at 50 percent of their capacity.

Meanwhile, awareness of pig farm owners, slaughter houses and traders about food safety and hygiene was still limited, said the department.