Chinese traders manipulate the seafood market

Since Chinese traders intervened in the Vietnamese market, including seafood products, the market has fluctuated and many Vietnamese people have had to suffer the consequences of foreign traders' business tricks.

Market capture

After a period of relative silence due to being alarmed by the media, in the past 2 months, Chinese traders have again "landed" at many fishing ports in the Central region to purchase seafood caught by Vietnamese fishermen.

At Vinh Luong fishing port, Nha Trang city - one of the places where Chinese traders have been buying seafood for many years, at 10am on a day in early April, the fishing boats were about to dock, which was also the time when Chinese traders were hanging around to prepare to bargain. According to many people, in previous years, at the peak, there were about 50 Chinese traders coming to the fishing ports to buy.

Therefore, names like Lam Tai Cuong, A Ty, A Bay - are very familiar to fishermen at fishing ports. This year, due to their proficiency, the number of traders stationed at fishing ports has also decreased significantly. Currently, according to statistics from the Vinh Luong fishing port management board, there are 6 Chinese traders coming to the port every day to buy fish. Looking at their trading activities, they are no different from Vietnamese traders.

Chinese traders openly purchase fish at Vinh Luong fishing port

Hairtail fish - a type of fish that is popular at Vinh Luong port, has long been purchased by domestic business owners. However, since Chinese traders landed at fishing ports, the fish market has been completely disrupted. They buy at a price about 10,000 VND/kg higher than domestic businesses. When fishing boats reach shore, Chinese traders come to the boats to make transactions. For fishermen, whoever buys at a higher price will sell, so most of the hairtail fish fall into the hands of Chinese traders.

According to statistics, in 2012, nearly 6,000 tons of seafood (hairfish accounted for the most) passed through Vinh Luong port, of which 2/3 fell into the hands of Chinese traders. Unable to purchase fish, many Vietnamese hairfish processing enterprises had no choice but to change jobs, leaving the market to Chinese traders to set their own prices. A business that used to purchase hairfish and now has changed jobs in Nha Trang City, bitterly said: "Seeing Chinese traders packing containers of hairfish to transport away, taking away their livelihood for so long makes me... frustrated."

Suppressing Vietnamese traderst

Since the beginning of this year's production season, normally, each day the seafood processing factory of Thong Thuan Seafood Joint Stock Company in Cam Ranh City (Khanh Hoa) buys about 60 tons of raw shrimp (white-leg shrimp). However, in recent months, the company has only been able to buy about 15 tons per day. According to the company, due to the scarcity of raw shrimp, the price of shrimp has been pushed up, from 80,000 VND/kg, now increased to 130,000 VND/kg.

The reason is that some Chinese traders hide under the guise of Vietnamese "brokers" to buy at high prices, so they have taken all the raw materials. With the price pushed up to 50,000 VND/kg, Vietnamese enterprises find it difficult to compete because domestic enterprises have to pay many input taxes, while Chinese traders do not pay any taxes because they mainly export through unofficial channels.

Not long ago, some cobia fish businesses in Khanh Hoa were “led by the nose” by Chinese traders when they trusted their partners too much. Initially, Chinese traders asked some businesses in Khanh Hoa to collect cobia fish and process them into fillets to send back to China. The first few transactions went quite smoothly, as the Vietnamese businesses were provided with enough money to buy cobia fish as ordered.

But after a while, the Chinese traders only gave the Vietnamese traders about 30% of the total amount of goods to be purchased. When many people had collected and finished processing the goods, the Chinese traders suddenly announced that they would not buy for many reasons, and at the same time, they would lose 30% of the deposit.

With dozens of tons of finished fish fillets worth billions of dong, if they cannot sell them, these businesses will go bankrupt. Meanwhile, filleted cobia cannot be sold in the domestic market due to consumption habits. Unable to sell anywhere, the above filleted cobia had to be sold off to another trader who is also Chinese - but this trader is also a "link" of the previous Chinese partners.

Not just a few types of fish, Chinese traders come to Vietnam to buy all kinds of seafood from high-end to low-end. Initially, they buy at prices several dozen percent higher than domestic enterprises. After a period of pushing Vietnamese enterprises out of the purchasing competition, Chinese traders start to manipulate prices.

Mr. Luu The Anh, owner of a lobster purchasing facility in Nha Trang, said that since the development of farmed lobsters, Chinese traders have also come to buy. And not long after, this shrimp market was in their hands, so there was a time when lobsters were priced up to 2.5 million VND/kg and then dropped to only 700,000 VND/kg.

According to Mr. Vo Thien Lang, Vice President of Vietnam Fisheries Association, President of Khanh Hoa Fisheries Association, every year Khanh Hoa has about 1,000 tons of lobster, the consumption market from China accounts for over 80%, however, in the seafood export turnover of Khanh Hoa there is no lobster. Because of this, a huge amount of tax from lobster is lost.

>> “Chinese traders who come to Vietnam to buy seafood have many “tricks” to avoid detection, but this is not difficult to detect. However, the management agencies rarely intervene, so Chinese traders act freely. It is time for us to find a way to export officially and the Vietnamese must truly master the seafood export market, otherwise we will lose right in our own home market,” Mr. Vo Thien Lang said indignantly.

According to Vietnam Fisheries