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Food exports drive up local prices
The increasing unofficial export of many kinds of food items including poultry eggs, pigs, sugar and coconuts to China has pushed their prices up in the domestic market.
The price of poultry eggs in HCM City markets has risen significantly, with salted duck eggs now costing VND5,000 (US$0.24) each, compared to VND3,500 earlier.
Furthermore, traders are finding it difficult to purchase enough eggs despite offering higher prices, reports the Sai Gon Tiep Thi newspaper.
According to the two biggest egg suppliers for the HCM City market, Ba Huan and Vinh Thanh Dat companies, the quantity of eggs they have been able to buy from the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta market has decreased by 30-40 per cent recently.
"Prices have increased strongly, but we don't have enough eggs to buy," said Truong Chi Thien, Director of Vinh Thanh Dat Co Ltd.
Industry insiders say some businesses in Vinh Long Province and Can Tho City have collected large quantities of fresh eggs to make salted duck eggs for export to China.
The Animal Health Centre in the region, which issues quarantine certificates, also affirmed that the export of salted duck eggs to China by enterprises in Vinh Long and Can Tho provinces had increased remarkably in recent time.
Ba Huan, Director of Ba Huan Company, said with the Autumn Festival approaching both in China and Viet Nam, there was a huge demand for salted duck eggs – an important ingredient in the moon cake that is a festival specialty.
She also said a lot of Chinese businesses had come to Viet Nam and begun competing with local companies in buying eggs.
Dinh Van The, an animal health department official in Long An Province, said Chinese businesses were even buying old ducks that have stopped laying eggs.
Therefore, some slaught-erhouses in the province were buying these birds for slaughtering, freezing and delivering them to Chinese buyers at the border gate.
Huan said a slaughter-house in Cai Be District of Tien Giang Province was also collecting the old ducks to sell to Chinese businesses.
The price of an old duck was about VND50,000 early this year, but it has risen to VND110,000-VND120,000 at present.
With price of ducks increasing suddenly amidst economic difficulties, some duck breeders sold part of their flock, leading to a dip in egg supply, Huan said.
After a brief lull lasting several months, Chinese traders have in recent weeks resumed buying pigs from Viet Nam, especially those weighing between 80-120 kilos each, pushing pork prices up in the domestic market.
Sugar, coconuts
Two other commodities whose prices have risen as a result of increased export to China are coconuts and sugar.
Coconut prices went up from VND110,000 per dozen earlier this year to VND165,000.
Some traders who specialise in collecting coconuts to supply to confectioneries said volumes brought into HCM City had reduced sharply because of exports to China.
Hoang Thi Tam Ai, owner of the Tri Duc Food Processing Company, said coconut prices had increased strongly and it had become hard to purchase them, so many companies had reduced the amount of coconut milk in their products and replaced by oil or fat.
Similarly, with a big difference in sugar prices between Viet Nam and China, many businesses are buying sugar and transporting them to the border gate for export to China.
Nguyen Thanh Long, Chairman of the Viet Nam Sugar Cane and Sugar Association, said a kilo of sugar was sold at about VND30,000 in China, VND10,000-12,000 higher than in Viet Nam.
Some sugar factories in the northern and central region were selling a large volume of sugar to traders who then exported it to China via border trade, he said.
He also said the association would petition the Ministry of Industry and Trade to allow sugar imports in case local prices touched VND20,000 a kilo.
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