Hanoi police on June 13 announced to discover a private establishment that sold food processed from dead pork.

Dead pigs at Trong's house.

According to investigators, Mr. Nguyen Van Hai, 24, from Thuong Tin district bought dead pigs with blue ear epidemic from a butcher named Nguyen Ba Trong, 30, in Chuong My district.

Hai sold pig bones and trotters at markets in Thuong Tin district and meat to some food processors on Nguyen Khoai Road, in Hai Ba Trung district, with 200kg a day.

Based on Hai’s statement, police inspected Trong’s slaughtering house in Chuong My district. According to investigation, a lot of pigs died in en masse by blue ear epidemic in the district. Trong built a frozen house to contain dead pigs, which he bought at dirt prices, less than VND10,000 ($0.5) per kilo. Checking Trong’s frozen house, police detected more than 4 tons of dead pigs.

Police also inspected a food processing establishment at No.209 Nguyen Khoai road and discovered hundred kilos of pork which would be processed into salted shredded meat and pork roasted with tiny shrimp paste.

The establishment’s manager, Mr. Dao Quang Binh, admitted that he bought this volume of dead pork from Trong. 

Binh said that salted shredded meat made of dead pork is priced VND100,000-200,000 ($5-10) per kilo and pork roasted with tiny shrimp paste is priced VND10,000-30,000 ($0.5-1.5)/a small can.

Hanoi police are investigating the case.

In related news, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has warned of complicated developments of the blue-ear epidemic in pigs in northern provinces.

The risk of an outbreak is very high in Red River Delta and northern mountainous provinces, said MARD Deputy Minister Diep Kinh Tan. In Hanoi, the disease has been found in Ba Vi and Phuc Tho districts and Son Tay Town.

Source: VNN