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The tracks of tra tears
Thousands of tra fish farmers in the Cuu Long River Delta were happy when they signed contracts with seafood processing companies to sell oversize fish. However, their rejoicing was premature.
Farmers and seafood processing companies signed contracts drawn up by processing companies which said that farmers would get money 1-3 months after the companies got fish. The farmers had to accept the contracts’ provisions because they wished to sell as much fish as possible.
Nguyen Thi Kim Phuong from An Nhon Commune in Chau Thanh district, Dong Thap province, related that she signed a contract to sell 90 tonnes of fish to KT Company at VND12,800/kg. On July 27, the company’s representatives came to get 48 tonnes of fish. However, Phuong does not know when or if she will get money, though she has called the company many times.
T., a tra farmer in Sa Dec town in Dong Thap province, signed a contract to sell 700 tonnes of fish to VH Company in April at VND14,800/kg. However, the company has not yet come to get fish, while the fish have grown from 0.8kg to 1.5kg/unit now. Meanwhile, T cannot sell fish to other wholesalers, as he has to respect the contract.
Phan Thanh Son in An Nhon commune in Chau Thanh district in Dong Thap province related that he had a spoken agreement on selling 160 tonnes of fish at VND13,200/kg to a wholesaler from An Giang province. However, he has not received VND2bil for the delivered volume of fish so far.
Farmers say that they have been told to cut selling prices or they will not be able to sell fish. H. in Tan Loc commune, Thot Not district in Can Tho city, said that he signed a contract on June 10 to sell 100 tonnes of fish to NV Company at VND13,900/kg, with which he incurs the loss of VND1,000/kg.
However, the company which signed the contract has not come to get fish so far, though he has contacted the company eight times. In early August, he was told to slash the contracted price by VND800/kg if he still wanted to sell fish. Finally, H had to re-sign the contract with a price VND800/kg lower, which brought him another loss of VND80mil.
Dang Van Ho in Hoa Lac commune in Phu Tan district, An Giang province, also said that NV company previously accepted to purchase fish at VND13,800/kg. However, Ho cannot sell the fish unless he now accepts reducing the price to VND12,600/kg.
Farmers complain that even when they spontaneously reduce selling prices, they still cannot sell fish. Many farmers said that only those who reduce prices by VND800-1,000/kg can hope to successfully sell fish. With such sharp price decreases, thousands of farmers in the Cuu Long River Delta will suffer the loss of several billions of VND to tens of billions of VND. A lot of them have decided to give up tra farming.
VNN
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