Proposal to stop the smuggling of sturgeon.

(TBKTSG Online) – Faced with the increasing prevalence of smuggled sturgeon from China, the Lam Dong Province Coldwater Fish Development Association, representing sturgeon production and distribution companies nationwide, has submitted a petition to the Prime Minister requesting government support to curb the smuggling of sturgeon of unknown origin.

According to the petition, recently, between 2 and 3 tons of sturgeon of unknown origin have been smuggled into Ho Chi Minh City daily via Tan Son Nhat Airport and sold on the market at very low prices, only about 120,000 to 130,000 VND/kg, much lower than the price of domestically produced sturgeon currently sold in the Ho Chi Minh City market.

Mr. Tran Van Hao, Chairman of the Lam Dong Province Coldwater Fish Development Association, said that sturgeon producers in the North currently operate on a small scale with low production volumes, insufficient to supply the Northern market, thus eliminating the need for transportation to other regions. Furthermore, the wholesale price of sturgeon produced in the North is already around 150,000-160,000 VND/kg at the farm, making it impossible to transport by air to Ho Chi Minh City and sell it below the wholesale price in the North.

Furthermore, major domestic sturgeon producers, currently concentrated in lakes in the Central Highlands, also confirm that transporting sturgeon to Ho Chi Minh City is entirely by road because it is cheaper than transporting by air.

Therefore, Mr. Hao said: “The sturgeon being imported into Ho Chi Minh City daily is not domestically produced sturgeon, but sturgeon smuggled from China.”

Mr. Do Quang Tung, Director of the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Animals and Plants) Management Authority of Vietnam, stated that CITES Vietnam has only granted permission to one enterprise to import sturgeon eggs and juvenile sturgeon. Regarding commercial sturgeon, CITES Vietnam has not issued any import permits.

“All commercially imported sturgeon currently being consumed in Vietnam is smuggled,” Mr. Tung said.

Speaking to Saigon Economic Times Online , Mr. Nguyen Trong Cu, Director of Viet Duc Investment and Trading Co., Ltd. (specializing in the production and trading of commercial sturgeon in Tam Dao district, Vinh Phuc province), said that the 2-3 tons smuggled into Ho Chi Minh City via air freight is only the tip of the iceberg. Every day, approximately 4 to 5 tons of smuggled sturgeon are consumed in northern provinces, and at times this number has even reached over 10 tons.

Due to the increasingly sophisticated methods of smuggling sturgeon, through collusion with domestic businesses that are not able to compete fairly in the sturgeon industry, his company’s sturgeon revenue has decreased by more than 60% in recent years compared to previous years.

“This is not just the situation at Viet Duc, but at many other businesses involved in the production and trading of sturgeon,” Mr. Cu said angrily.

These cheap sturgeon products not only affect the distribution network of domestically produced sturgeon, threatening the survival of producers and risking thousands of farmers losing their jobs, but also cause confusion among consumers because it is not easy to distinguish between Vietnamese sturgeon and smuggled sturgeon.

However, earlier, at the conference summarizing the first six months and implementing the plan for the last six months of the year for the fisheries sector, held at the end of June, Mr. Nguyen Huy Dien, Deputy Director General of the General Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, stated that, to date, the General Department of Fisheries has no evidence to suggest any smuggling of sturgeon from China.