VietNamNet Bridge – The activities by foreign businessmen of collecting farm produce in Vietnam would be put under strict control, once a circular on the issue, being drafted by the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT) is promulgated, slated for the third quarter of 2012.

A senior official of MOIT said Vietnam welcomes all foreign authentic businessmen who come to Vietnam to do business, while obeying the laws of the local authorities. However, Vietnam will not close its eyes to the illegal business activities in Vietnam.

It’s clear that the official implies the tightened control over the Chinese businessmen, who have been discovered by local newspapers as carrying out illegal activities of collecting farm produce directly from Vietnamese farmers.

The businessmen entered Vietnam with tourism visas, but did business in Vietnam, collecting farm produce at instable prices. This made Vietnamese farmers and enterprises suffer and made the farm produce market chaotic.

Feeble farmers exploited to be caught in a trap

Nguyen Van My, Deputy Director of the Tien Giang Vegetables Company, a big fruit producer and exporter, said that Chinese businessmen usually scramble for farm produce with Vietnamese businessmen by paying high prices to farmers.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese farmers are ready to break the contracts signed between them and enterprises and sell to Chinese businessmen for higher prices, not to Vietnamese ones, who only accept to pay the price levels stipulated in the contracts.

Also according to My, his company collected pineapples from farmers at 3200 dong per kilo, while Chinese merchants promised the higher price at 4000 dong per kilo. Therefore, farmers rushed to sell pineapple materials to Chinese, leaving My’s factory in the thirst for materials.

My said that being greedy for money proves to be the biggest weak point that has been exploited by Chinese businessmen. He called the Chinese businessmen’s behavior of paying higher prices to scramble for pineapples as “playing dirty on Vietnamese businessmen.”

In principle, Vietnamese farmers have to respect the contracts they signed before with the Vietnamese enterprises and sell pineapples to the enterprises, which gave support to them to develop the pineapple growing area. Meanwhile, Chinese businessmen, who did not “travel with farmers,” still could buy farm materials at good prices.

Do Van Phuoc, Deputy Director of the Tien Giang provincial Department of Industry and Trade, said after receiving the reports about the illegal activities by Chinese businessmen in the locality, the department instructed relevant branches to inspect the activities.

The inspectors confirmed that Chinese businessmen collected farm produce in the province through Vietnamese merchants, who have licenses.

“We have given warnings to the local farmers and told them to keep cautious when dealing with foreign businessmen,” he said. “As far as I know, after the notice was released, some businessmen have left.”

Tightening control? It’ll not be easy

However, Phuoc thinks that it would not be easy to tighten the control over foreign businessmen’s activities. The businessmen “hide their faces in the darkness” and only buy farm produce via Vietnamese businessmen, who have licenses. Therefore, it’s not easy to find out the businessmen and punish them.

Therefore, Phuoc believes that Vietnamese businessmen should also be put under the strict management to prevent them from lending a hand to foreign businessmen to harm farmers and the domestic production.

Nguyen Xuan Chien, Deputy Director of the Domestic Market Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said though Vietnam has many legal documents stipulating the management over the foreigners’ activities of collecting farm produce in Vietnam, very few business activities in Vietnam carried out by foreigners are really legal.

Source: Dien dan DN