Scarcity causes pork to move from plates to T-shirts

Recently, after pork prices increased dramatically due to a supply shortage, the meat became a hot topic and soon turned into a marketing trend in various industries.

Oanh, a fashion store owner in northern Hai Phong City, said she had just imported a shipment of 500 jackets, necklaces and socks with images of the meat. A shirt with 3D pork images costs VND200,000 ($8.6), a pork-shaped necklace costs VND50,000 ($2.2), while a pair of socks costs VND100,000 ($4.3).

A jacket with images of pork is for sale online. Photo by acquired by VnExpress.

"I mainly import them to distribute to wholesalers in the south," Oanh said. 

Loan, owner of a shop selling clothes on an e-commerce site, said T-shirts with pork images are "hot" and imported from China, and wholesalers could contact Chinese dealers directly.                                               

These became popular in China after pork became scarce and prices skyrocketed earlier this year. 

Government agencies have previously estimated that Vietnam could face the shortage of 200,000-300,000 tonnes of pork in 2019 after the African swine fever broke out last February, claiming the lives of 5.9 million pigs.

Pork prices have been reaching new heights in recent months. In the middle of last December, it was VND95,000 ($4) per kilogram, up 86 percent from last January.

Industry insiders say that demand will increase further as Tet, the Lunar New Year holiday, which falls on the last week of January 2020, approaches.