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Businessmen flocking to territorial waters to hunt for shark fin
Shark fin traders have been flocking to Binh Dinh province after hearing that local fishermen consecutively caught sharks. Especially, Chinese businesses have been hunting shark fin in large quantities.
The “capital city” of shark fin trade
Binh Dinh is considered the “capital city” of shark fin trade, while Hoai Huong commune of Hoai Nhon district is considered the biggest shark fin trade center of the country.
There in Hoai Huong and Tam Quan Bac communes, there were more than 100 fishing boats specializing in catching sharks. However, most of the boats have shifted to catch tuna. There are tens of households and a lot of private enterprises which trade the products made of sharks and shark fin.
Especially, merchants in the central region also gather in Hoai Huong: they collect shark fin from all provinces and then carry to Hoai Huong, where they sell to businessmen who then carry to HCM City or export abroad.
Le Thi Don in Hoai Huong commune is a well known shark fin trader in the central region. Don said her family has been doing this business for the last 30 years.
“In the past, we took agricultural works, but later, we decided to trade shark fin. We have relations with the merchants from Quang Ngai, Phu Yen, Da Nang and the provinces in the west of the southern region,” Don said.
Don’s partners in Binh Dinh and other provinces collect shark fin from different localities and then sell to Don, who then carries the products to processing workshops for export, especially to China.
The months from February to May of the lunar year are the high fishing season. During that time, Don can collect tens of kilos of fresh fin a month. Meanwhile, at present, Don can collect tens of kilos a month.
According to Saigon Tiep thi, a lot of Chinese merchants have been flocking to Binh Dinh to hunt for shark fin. They accept to buy all fresh fins at high prices. Right after collecting fins, they send the products to Hanoi or HCM City from which the products will be carried to China.
Tran Thanh, a local resident in Hoai Nhon district said that since businessmen come here to collect shark fins from every household, the products have become rare and as expensive as gold.
Muoi Hop in Hoai Huong commune is also a well known shark fin trader in Binh Dinh. Hop collects shark fins, process products and supply products to export companies. Currently, Hop mostly collects the products from the fishing boats that dock Tam Quan Bac port and the localities in Quang Ngai province.
However, according to Le Van Tam, a local resident, since most of fishing boats have shifted to catch tuna, sharks have become scarcer, and the shark fin is getting more and more expensive. Tam said that every three kilos of fresh shark fin can give one kilo of dried shark fin.
In general, a set of fresh shark fin is priced between hundreds of thousands of dong to tens of millions of dong. Especially, the sharks with only three fins are the most expensive, while a set of fins can be sold at tens of millions of dong.
The shark fin trade complexes
There are a lot of groups that specialize in collecting shark fins for export in Tam Quan Bac commune of Hoai Nhon district and in Quy Nhon City in Binh Dinh province.
According to Dinh, a shark fin collector, there are always a lot of people waiting at the Tam Quan Bac port to purchase shark fins from fishing boats. Especially, some merchants accept to advance money to fishing boats’ owners, provided that the owners will sell shark fins to them later. When the supply is short, merchants would push the prices up.
According to Tran Van Thuan, a local resident, there are no less than 10 “shark fin trade rings” Quy Nhon City, each of which has a network of agents, merchants who keep regular contact with each other and with fishing boats’ owners.
vietnamnet, SGTT
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