Tailoring slaughter weight of indigenous Vietnamese Ban pigs for the requirements of urban high-end niche markets

Slaughtered at heavy live weights, carcasses of the autochthonous Vietnamese Ban pig breed are not marketable on the highly remunerative niche markets of the urban Red River Delta. Therefore, Ban pigs are traded often at just 10 to 15 kg to avoid excessive fat accumulation. However, already, a moderate increase of slaughter weights might lead to rising profits for smallholder farmers in the uplands. Thus, this research aimed at investigating the effect of increasing live weight on the carcass composition and meat quality of indigenous Ban pigs qualifying for commerce on high-end markets. Fifty-six castrated male Ban fatteners with body weights ranging from 6.5 to 29.3 kg were collected from smallholder farmers applying a feeding system based on banana pseudostem (Musa spp.) and slaughtered by local slaughterers according to common practice. The carcass quality of 51 animals and, additionally, meat quality parameters of the loin and ham of 56 animals were assessed. For the evaluation of increased live weights on commodity prices, two pricing systems based on actual market prices for Ban fatteners in Son La town and Hanoi were suggested. Carcass fat depots did not significantly increase when body weights were raised from 12 to approximately 20 kg, and the distribution of primal cuts and the meat quality of the loin and ham were relatively stable. Thus, the currently applied slaughter weights for purebred Ban pigs appear to be suboptimal, and a moderate increase of slaughter weights to approximately 20 kg is feasible and could result in monetary benefits. In this context, the role of small-scale slaughterers for value chain upgrading is discussed. In conclusion, increasingly formalized value chains for traditional pork products could provide the potential to not only contribute to rural development in the Southeast Asian Massif, but also to the conservation of animal genetic resources of a highly valuable eco-cultural region.