VietNamNet Bridge – The anchovy price has tripled as Chinese
businessmen have been collecting anchovy in big quantities, leaving Phu Quoc
fish sauce producers in thirst for materials.
Thinh Phat Company, one of the
biggest fish sauce producers in Phu Quoc with the annual output of one million
liters, has scaled down its operation. Thinh Phat’s Director Tran My Thuan said
the anchovy price has increased so dramatically, therefore, he has stopped
buying materials.
“We plan to reduce the output
from 100 barrels to 40. We cannot keep the current production scale, because
the materials have become too expensive, while we are not sure about the
sales,” Thuan said.
“We still do not know what we
should do next. I have heard that other producers have also scaled down their
production. Others shut down workshops, running hotels and restaurants for
bigger profit,” he added.
In general, a barrel needs 15
tons of fish materials which would make out 10,000 liters of fish sauce. As
such, Thinh Phat has reduced its 60 percent of capacity, or 600,000 liters of
fish sauce.
The price of anchovies, the main
material for making Phu Quoc fish sauce, has soared from 6500 dong per kilo to
18,000-20,000 dong per kilo since September and October.
The new price levels have been
set up by the merchants from the central region, who come to the south to
collect and dry anchovies to sell to Chinese merchants.
Chair of the Phu Quoc Fish Sauce
Association Nguyen Thi Tinh estimated that hundreds of tons of anchovies are
carried away from the Phu Quoc territorial waters every day.
Pham Thi Muoi in Dong Duong town
said she is from the family which has been making fish sauce for the next three
generations, but she has never seen such a sky high price before.
As an experienced fish sauce
maker, Muoi has affirmed that no one would make profit with such high material
prices. Meanwhile, they cannot push the sale prices up, because consumers won’t
buy expensive products when they have to fasten their belt in the economic
crisis.
There are 104 fish sauce makers
in Phu Quoc, churning out 30 million liters a year.
“The sharp material price
increase has seriously affected the fish sauce production on the island,” Tinh
said, adding that the productivity in September and October was just equal to
20 percent of that of the same period of 2011.
“We have petitioned to the
provincial authorities, asking competent agencies to take inspection tours in
order to prevent the anchovies from being sold immoderately to China,” Tinh
said.
She went on to say that while the
merchants from the central region do not bear any kinds of tax when buying
anchovies, the fish sauce makers in Phu Quoc have to pay five percent in tax.
When asked why the anchovy prices
have increased so dramatically, Nguyen Minh Truc, Head of the Economics Section
of the Phu Quoc district said the demand from China is very high, which has
prompted Vietnamese merchants to raise the prices of materials they buy
directly from fishermen on the sea.
On the morning of November 14,
Tinh informed that the price has dropped to 9500 dong per kilo, but said that
the price is still too high which is unaffordable by the producers.
Tinh also said that fish makers
met anchovy suppliers, asking to apply the ceiling price at 8500 dong per kilo.
However, it’s still unclear if any agreement can be reached.
Tien Phong
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