Poultry farmers in the southeast and Dong Nai Province have said they are considering suing the US for dumping cheap chicken legs in the Vietnamese market.

The US-imported chicken legs

On July 28, the livestock associations of Dong Nai Province and the southeast submitted documents to Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to call for an investigation into the dumping, and an audit of quality and origin of the chicken products imported from the US.

The two associations recently sent representatives to the US to research chicken prices.

According to their findings, a kilo of chicken legs is costs VND80,000 (US$3.80) in the US, while the price is only VND20,000 (around US$1) in Vietnam. A chicken is sold at VND200,000 (US$9.52), but it is just VND60,000 (US$2.85) in Vietnam.

The price disparity has also raised doubts about the quality of US-imported chicken products being sold in Vietnam.

The two associations will also actually research the production costs of these products in the US and legal consultancy for suing the US side.

The associations said that Vietnam has increased the import of frozen meat products over the past two years, particularly from the US.

 During the two-year period, prices of frozen meat products sold in Vietnam have continuously fallen. Two years ago, a kilo of US-imported chicken legs was priced at US$1.20 to US$2.50, but now, the price dropped 60 to 80 US cents.