Vietnam’s dirt cheap US chicken imports raise trade fraud concern
Vietnam’s dirt cheap US chicken imports raise trade fraud concern
Vietnam imported 70,000 metric tons of frozen chicken in the first half of this year at an average price of less than a dollar, raising concern about fraudulent trade activities.
The chicken imports in the six-month period were worth US$63.7 million, with an average pretax import price of only US$0.9 a kg, or VND19,600, the General Department of Vietnam Customs said on Thursday.
Last year the country spent $103.1 million importing more than 100,000 metric tons of chicken products, at an average import price of $1 a kg.
The U.S. accounted for more than 60 percent of the chicken imports in Vietnam in the first half of this year, whereas 16 percent and 10 percent came from Brazil and South Korea, respectively, according to customs data.
About 98 percent of the frozen chicken legs imported into Vietnam in the first six months were from the U.S.
While the average pretax import price was VND19,600 a kg, the importers then distributed such products to local partners for only VND17,000-18,000 ($0.79-0.84) a kg, or even VND12,000-13,000 ($0.56-0.6) a kg.
Imported chicken products are subject to a 20 percent tariff before they are distributed in Vietnam, according to Tran Duy Khanh, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Poultry Association.
“The fact that chicken imports fetch much cheaper than their import rates shows signs of trade fraud,” Khanh said, while calling for relevant agencies to look into the issue.
This is not the first time the Vietnamese poultry sector has expressed skepticism over the throwaway prices of U.S. chicken imports.
Two Vietnamese husbandry associations have even appealed to the government to launch a probe to determine whether U.S. businesses are dumping their chicken products at below-market prices in the Southeast Asian country.
In July, the Animal Husbandry Association in southeastern Vietnam and its counterpart in the southern province of Dong Nai both signed petitions for a dumping investigation to be undertaken to protect domestic chicken businesses.
Following the latest customs data, Nguyen Van Ngoc, deputy chairman of the Animal Husbandry Association in southeastern Vietnam, said authorities should look into the business activities of local chicken importers as well.
“The chicken shipments must have been temporarily imported and then re-exported, but the importers would just send them to the market,” he told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.
