Vietnamese seafood companies have been surprised with the presence of a lot of Chinese businessmen at Vietfish 2011, the international seafood trade fair held on June 28-30.

The businessmen flocked to the trade fair to collect seafood products to meet the increasing high demand in China.

Chinese want everything

A group of Chinese businessmen from 35 companies was present very early at Vietfish to seek to purchase seafood products. The number of Chinese businessmen was reportedly even higher than the number of businessmen from loyal markets such as the EU, US or Russia.

Especially, the unexpected appearance of so many Chinese businessmen was really a surprise to Vietnamese companies, which got embarrassed because they could not find enough interpreters immediately.

As soon as the trade fair opened, Lin Dai Yun, Chair of Yun Ping Company headquartered in Zhe Jiang, together with his wife and an assistant stepped quickly towards the stall of Hai Nam Company.

With the standard Chinese language, Yun pointed to sample products of Hai Nam and told the interpreter from Hai Nam Company: “We need to purchase sea fishes, sea shrimps, dried cattle fish, dried skate and anchovy, about 5-7 containers a month”.

Yun said to Nguyen Thi Thu Sac, Director of Vietnamese Hai Nam Company that Yun Ping has 20 subsidiaries which specialize in trading seafood products, making processed seafood products and fast food. The Chinese director showed his satisfaction about Hai Nam’s products.

“The demand for seafood in China is very high. We need raw materials or processed products in unlimited quantities,” Yun said to the General Director of Hai Nam, adding that further discussions will be made via emails.

Yun was not alone. On the opening day of Vietfish, a lot of other Chinese businessmen were present at companies’ stalls at the trade fair to seek partners. The presence of Chinese businessmen seemed to be a strange thing.

One could easily see at the trade fair the groups of two or three Chinese businessmen with bags on shoulders, who pointed to the Vietnamese products and asked information about them.

According to Sac, the main partners of Vietnamese companies are from the Europe, US and Russia, while the main partners in Asia are South Korean and Japanese, while there were very few Chinese partners. Therefore, the presence of Chinese businessmen at the trade fair was a big surprise, and many enterprises could not find interpreters to serve the discussions between Vietnamese and Chinese enterprises.

After leaving Hai Nam, the group of three of Yun came to Saigon The He Moi to ask to purchase clams, frozen squid and oysters.

On this trip to Vietfish, Zi San, General Director of a company on Jiang Su in China strives to find the supplies of black tiger and white leg shrimps. After discussing with Nguyen Tan Hy, a senior executive of Incomfish, Zi San concluded that in the immediate time, he will import 40 tons of frozen fish every week (20-30 shrimp per kilo).

Chinese prefer across-border trade to official channel

At the workshop on the trade opportunities with 35 Chinese companies held on the afternoon of June 28, most of Chinese businessmen affirmed the plan to import Vietnam’s seafood products in big quantities.

Truong Dinh Hoe, Secretary General of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) also said that Vietnamese companies want to keep sustainable trade with China. He said that VASEP will organize a trip to Beijing and Shang Hai in the fourth quarter of 2011 to seek trade exchange opportunities.

Currently, Vietnam exports 5 billion dollars worth of seafood products every year, while the seafood trade turnover between Vietnam and China remains modest at several hundreds of millions of dollars.

However, a problem has arisen that Chinese prefer across-border trade, while they do not want to make trade through official channel.

“If we made trade through official channel, we would only pay 40 percent of the values of the consignments first and the remaining money would be paid after selling the products,” a Chinese said.

However, Hy from Incomfish said Incomfish will not agree to the proposal, because this payment method brings risks to sellers.

Sac of Hai Nam also affirmed that Hai Nam will only choose the Chinese partners who agree to make trade through official channel.