VietNamNet Bridge – Bat Trang pottery, Ha Dong silk craft
villages have been flooded with Chinese goods. Meanwhile, the Dong Ho painting
village not only has lost its traditional career, but lost its name as well.
Part 1: Vietnamese Bat Trang
potteries surrender to Chinese products?
A banderole is hung over the
entrance to the Bat Trang pottery craft village “Thuong hieu cho gom lang co
Bat Trang thuoc ve nhan dan lang Bat Trang” (the Bat Trang pottery market and
ancient village brand belong to Bat Trang village’s residents).
The banderole reminds local
people of the pride of the career of making potteries descended by their ancestors
to the next generations. This also shows the determination of Bat Trang people
to retain the career and the brand.
Local dwellers and Vietnamese
people need to be reminded of their task of protecting the Bat Trang brand now,
when Chinese pottery products have been flooding the domestic market.
Le Van Cam, 83, the oldest
craftsman in Bat Trang pottery village affirmed that Bat Trang potteries have
their specific characteristics which can be considered their “identity card”
when available on the market. The enamel color of Bat Trang products cannot be
mistaken for other products from other sources
Cam, who spent 60 years in his
life on making potteries, takes pride of the 800-year history of the pottery
village. After a lot of ups and downs in the history, Bat Trang products still
cement their position in the domestic market.
However, Cam has been hauntingly
worried about the risk of being “crushed” by Chinese products.
Le Van Thu, a craftsman, the
eldest son of Cam, said a lot of pottery workshops in Bat Trang have shut down,
while others have been working at a moderate level and laid off most of their
workers.
“We also have fewer orders,” Thu
said.
He went on to say that the
biggest threat for Bat Trang potteries is the presence of low cost and low
quality products on the domestic market, mostly sourced from China.
Right in the Bat Trang village,
people import potteries from China, then label the products with Bat Trang
brand and sell as Bat Trang’s products. The trade frauds have step by step
killed the traditional career.
Pham Van May, Deputy Chair of the
Bat Trang commune People’s Committee, has confirmed that up to 95 percent of
counterfeit goods, bearing Bat Trang brand, are sourced from China.
Why have Chinese potteries been
flooding the domestic market, where Vietnamese people have called on by the
Communist Party to “buy Vietnamese?”
The key lies in the hands of the
traders--right in the Bat Trang pottery village. They prefer selling Chinese
products which have the prices just equal to a half of the real Bat Trang’s
products. It is very easy to import products from China and then sell as Bat
Trang products to make fat profit.
Thu said that Chinese merchants
have been present regularly in the village. “Some Chinese merchants have warned
that many Chinese workshops want to counterfeit Bat Trang products. If Vietnam
does not take action right now to protect Bat Trang brand, it would lose the long
lasting brand one day,” Thu said.
“It’s necessary to pay a special
attention to protecting Vietnamese traditional brands. Vietnam has learnt
lessons from the cases of losing well-known brands into the hands of Chinese
businesses,” he added.
Source: NLD
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