Seafood traders squeeze prices as hundreds of fishing boats return to avoid the storm

On the morning of September 15, hundreds of fishing boats from Quynh Luu (Nghe An) returned to port to take shelter from storm Mangkhut. Photo: Viet Hung

Having just set out to sea to catch seafood for about 4 days, fisherman Nguyen Van Hung's fishing boat in Tien Thuy commune received news of storm Mangkhut approaching the East Sea. Early in the morning of September 15, his boat returned to Lach Quen port.

Mr. Hung said that yesterday (September 14), after receiving information about storm Mangkhut via Icom, he and 8 crew members gathered their nets and carefully preserved their seafood to return to the mainland to avoid the storm. During the time of fishing at sea, his boat caught about 8 tons of various types of fish, mainly hairtail, anchovy, and anchovy. If the storm had not appeared, it would have taken about 2 more days for his boat to return to shore.

Fisherman Nguyen Van Hung in Tien Thuy commune, who was transporting seafood to shore, said that due to the storm, traders forced down the price of seafood. Each boat lost about 20-30 million VND. Photo: Viet Hung

“This trip was due to a storm so we had to return to shore earlier than usual. During the 4 days of fishing at sea, we caught tons of fish with a revenue of more than 100 million VND. However, after returning to shore, traders forced down the price so the total income for this trip was only 70 million VND, a loss of more than 30 million VND compared to the previous estimated price,” said fisherman Hung.

Not only fisherman Nguyen Van Hung, hundreds of fishing boats of fishermen from Quynh Long, Quynh Thuan, Quynh Nghia, Son Hai communes... are returning to shore to avoid the storm and urgently transport seafood for sale to traders. According to fishermen, usually when returning to avoid the storm, the price of seafood is purchased lower than before.

“Due to the storm, fishing boats returned to shore at the same time, so there was a lot of seafood, so traders forced down the price. Like my boat here, it was expected to fetch 200 million VND, but today it arrived at the same time as other boats also arrived, so the prices of all items dropped, total revenue only reached 160 million VND,” said fisherman Pham Van Thanh in Quynh Nghia commune.

In order to proactively respond to the storm, vehicle owners are rushing to sell seafood to traders. Photo: Viet Hung

At Lach Quen fishing port, 2 days ago, the price of hairtail fish was 80,000 - 100,000 VND/kg, but now it has dropped to 60,000 VND/kg; anchovy fish was 50,000 VND/kg, now it is only 35,000 - 40,000 VND/kg; silver pomfret was 50,000 VND/kg, now it is 40,000 VND...