In 2025, despite facing many fluctuations from the market and disease outbreaks, Gia Lai Province’s livestock sector still maintained fairly strong growth, contributing more than 27% of the local agricultural, forestry, and fishery production value. This result came from the process of strongly restructuring livestock production toward concentration and controlled management, gradually forming large-scale, modern, and sustainable commodity livestock production areas.
SHIFTING FROM SMALL-SCALE LIVESTOCK TO FARMS AND LINKED CHAINS
According to the Sub-Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health (Department of Agriculture and Environment), Gia Lai Province currently has 790 livestock farms of various large, medium, and small scales. Among them, an increasing number of farms have been invested in comprehensively, applying high-tech, biosecure livestock production processes, helping improve production efficiency and disease control.
Along with the farm system, the province has 65 livestock facilities certified under VietGAP, GlobalGAP, or disease safety standards; 86 facilities certified for food safety; and 5 livestock production linkage chains involving about 200 farms, with the participation of many large enterprises.
By the end of December 2025, Gia Lai had 247 investment projects in the livestock sector, with a total scale of nearly 4.9 million pigs, more than 161,000 cattle, and nearly 2.9 million poultry. Of these, 72 projects were already operational, helping form concentrated livestock production areas, create jobs, and promote rural economic development.
Mr. Đoàn Ngọc Có – Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment said the sector’s consistent orientation is to develop livestock production in association with disease control, environmental protection, and economic efficiency. Accordingly, the province does not encourage small-scale, dispersed livestock raising, but focuses on developing concentrated, high-tech livestock production linked with slaughtering, processing, and consumption through value chains.
AFRICAN SWINE FEVER – A LESSON FROM PRACTICE
In reality, outbreaks of African swine fever have been a major driver of the shift in livestock production models. The recent outbreak occurred in 34 provinces and cities nationwide; currently, 24 provinces and cities have not yet passed the 21-day mark. In Gia Lai alone, the disease appeared in 65 households across 49 hamlets and villages in 26 communes and wards, forcing the culling of 1,607 pigs, with a total weight of more than 100 tons. Nationwide, the number of pigs culled has exceeded 1.26 million.
Monitoring and surveillance show that outbreaks mainly arose in small-scale household farms with makeshift barns, poor sanitation conditions, incomplete biosecurity measures, and difficulty controlling people and vehicles entering and leaving livestock areas. In contrast, concentrated, closed-loop livestock farms that strictly apply biosecurity procedures and are part of linkage chains have not experienced outbreaks.
According to Mr. Huỳnh Ngọc Diệp – Director of the Sub-Department of Livestock Production and Animal Health, disease realities have shown that small-scale livestock production carries many risks. The shift to farm-based livestock production with disease safety is not only a development orientation, but has become an inevitable requirement for the livestock sector to develop stably and sustainably over the long term.
CONCENTRATED LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION, HIGH-TECH APPLICATIONS ALONG VALUE CHAINS
The Phú Hưng Farm (Phú Hưng Equipment Co., Ltd., Ân Hảo Commune) is a typical model of closed-loop value-chain livestock production. The company has not only invested systematically in production, but has also proactively expanded into distribution, bringing clean pork products directly to consumers.
The farm was built on an area of 15 hectares and currently raises 2,600 breeding sows, supplying about 6,000 piglets each month. At the same time, the unit manages and partners with 6 pig-fattening farms in Gia Lai and Đắk Lắk, with an output of about 50,000 market pigs per year. In 2025, the farm’s revenue reached more than VND 30 billion, with profits of over VND 10 billion.
On December 29, 2025, the second Phú Hưng Farm clean pork store officially opened in Quy Nhơn Nam Ward, following the success of the first store, which began operations in October 2025.
Mr. Hồ Ngọc Xuân – Owner of Phú Hưng Farm said: “We determine that livestock development must go hand in hand with quality control and building consumer trust. Forming a chain from the farm to the store helps ensure stable product outlets, especially in a context where disease developments remain complicated.”
2026 LIVESTOCK DEVELOPMENT ORIENTATION
Entering 2026, Gia Lai Province’s agriculture and environment sector continues to identify three key livestock species as cattle, pigs, and poultry, while focusing on developing 7 concentrated livestock zones in key areas.
The target is to raise the total herd to over 829,500 cattle, 2.18 million pigs, and nearly 19.75 million poultry; while encouraging the development of high-economic-efficiency livestock such as goats, bees, and swiftlets.
Along with production development, the province will strengthen disease surveillance and early warning, control restocking, organize vaccination to meet prescribed rates, and intensify quarantine, slaughter control, food safety, and inspections for banned substances in livestock production. At the same time, the province will continue to accompany enterprises, urge livestock projects to come into operation soon, and encourage investment in centralized slaughtering and processing plants linked to raw material areas.
Mr. Đoàn Ngọc Có affirmed: “From strategic orientation to effective practical models, the province’s livestock sector is gradually transforming toward concentration, modernization, and sustainability. This is not only the answer to immediate growth challenges, but also an important foundation for Gia Lai’s livestock sector to develop stably and sustainably in the years ahead.”
Trọng Lợi
Source: Gia Lai Newspaper
