25th SEA Games, Laos

Athletes staying at the SEA Games Village will be provided with a wide variety of high quality nutritious food during the event, according to the Lao World Company.


Mr Somsavat Lengsavad ( right ) loads his plate at the food tasting.
The company, which will provide catering at the village, held a food tasting event last Sunday to invite Standing Deputy Prime Minister and SEA Games Organising Committee Chairman, Mr Somsavat Lengsavad, and members of all SEA Games committees to sample the food that will be on offer at the village during the games.

General Manager of the Lao World Company, Mr Souliyong Youivanivong, told those at the event that ingredients would be sourced from Vientiane and from Champassak, Saravan, Xayaboury and Luang Prabang provinces.

“We will have almost 200 staff, including kitchen, waiting, cleaning and management staff, working in the canteen,” he said.

Mr Souliyong said the food provided to athletes will be healthy and nutritious and prepared under recommendations from experts from various government departments.

“The Forestry Department will guarantee that farmers providing vegetables to us are using organic methods and the Department of Industry and Commerce will inspect standards at slaughterhouses and ensure meat is transported hygienically.”

“All sectors involved will do their utmost to ensure everything is of the highest quality and standard.”

The canteen will provide nine to eleven different dishes each day during the games, including regional and European foods. Dining times will be from 6-10am, 11am-3pm, 5-8pm and 9-10pm.

Mr Somsavat instructed those responsible to correct spelling mistakes on the menu and to pay close attention to ensuring good quality, healthy food for the athletes.

Some committee members asked for more Lao and regional dishes be added to the menu to add a more local flavour for athletes.

The village will accommodate more than 4,000 athletes from the region who will participate in the games in December.

(KPL) Some districts in Vientiane Capital are focusing on how they can play a part in ensuring the success of the 25th SEA Games.

Xaythany district felt that it should play a special role because the SEA Games stadium is located in this district and the people wanted to contribute to the organization relating to the opening and closing ceremonies.

As part of their effort the villagers are now working harder than ever in rearing various types of livestock and they are meant to be sold during the SEA Games period.

Mr Thongteam Luangxay, Head of Agriculture Unit, Agriculture and Forestry Promotion Office of Xaythany district, recently announced that for the fiscal year 2008-2009, his department carried out a census exercise of the livestock of the district and added it had 4,535 buffaloes, 21,297 cows, 21,437 pigs, 6,483 goats and 278,564 poultry.

The district, he added has six cattle farms with 1,022 cows and 21 pig farms with 17,071 pigs.

Mr Thongteam said that chicken farms enjoyed a rapid expansion over a one-year period, from just 29 chicken farms in 2008 to 49 farms in 2009. Today these farms rear 98,259 chicken.

There are duck farms too, he said, 11 of them and they rear 14,420 ducks.
The district has two shrimp ponds covering 80 hectares and the producers sell 50 kilograms of shrimps per day to the retailers in the market.

The people of this district also rear fish in cages in the Nam-ngum river. They have 700 fish cages and they are planning to expand it to 1,000 cages.

Mr Thongteam said that his district produces surplus food. For a normal year it produces 320.88 tons of foodstuff: 2,853 of pork, 23 tons of mutton, 24,190 tons of fish and 73 tons of shrimps.

(KPL) The National Veterinary Centre of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Laos and the Animal and Crops Inspection Centre of the US Agriculture Department jointly held a workshop in Oudomsay province on 2 September regarding border inspection for technical officials of eight northern provinces.

The participants were instructed on the rules on animal transport, disposing the garbage after the inspection, veterinary inspection and the two different types of inspection: post and air transport.
The objectives were to control the spread of diseases and to ensure that the meat and fish quality supply for the SEA Games is fresh, safe and free from contaminant.

(KPL) There is the possibility that pigs could be smuggled into Laos from neighbouring countries during the 25th SEA Games period because of price differences.
The Local Pig Rearing Group disclosed yesterday that they were rearing more pigs than they normally do to cater to the demand for pork by the visitors of SEA Games.

At first they estimated that they only need an increase of 400-500 pigs for this event but then some pig farmers came to the conclusion that the number should be around 24,000 pigs.

Mr Vacolas Phosanarack, Director of Vanit Farm Company, revealed this week that presently his company is rearing 3,000 pigs but they are for the domestic market.
However, his company was not asked to rear any pig to make up for the expected increase in the demand for pork during the SEA Games period, said this pig farmer.

“The President of the Local Pig Rearing Group is the sole decision maker on the purchase of pigs from pig farmers. It follows that if the president decides not to buy any pig from my farm I do not have any right to complain” said Mr Vacolas.
Mr Neung Sombounkhan, President of the Lao Pigs Rearing Group, confirmed last week that his members have enough pigs only for the guests of this sporting event but it does not have any plan to supply the pork for all the visitors of SEA Games.

He said that the Pig Rearing Group decided to choose one local pig rearing company, Khamsavath Farm because this company is one of the big pig rearing companies in Laos and it has a good reputation for producing quality pork and the ability to supply the quantity that the market need. Besides the issue on pig rearing in Laos, some local pig raisers reckoned that illegal pigs may be imported from neighbouring countries the during SEA Games because the price of pork in Laos is higher than the neighbouring countries and that there still exists loopholes in the import control measures.

The price of pork in Laos hovers around the 25,000 kip per kilogram level but for the neighbouring countries it is priced at 18,000 kip per kilogram.