No label, no expiry date…

03/06/2007 12:00 - 1034 Views

From frontier towns to urban areas, the markets are flooding Chinese food without label and customers have no understanding of its ingredients. Price of these products is surprisingly cheap and especially, they can not spoil even for years.

In Binh Tay Market (District No. 6, Ho Chi Minh City), dry foodstuff stalls have all kind of products, from sticking needle, almond, asparagus, shiitake mushroom, seaweed, and etc. One shopkeeper says that most of these products packaged in cartons without wrapping, label, or expiry date are imported from China. And even what they are made from is not known. However, these products are sold like hot cakes, especially in provinces.

“Retouching” makes these products pleasant to the eye.

Chinese dry foodstuff is available at quite cheap price with big size and appealing appearance so the consuming quantity is high. Chinese shiitake mushroom has big size and can be cooked easily so customers are interested in this product. Especially, it can be stored as long as they please. “When it has moldy dust, customer just needs to soak then dust disappear”, said one shopkeeper. Displayed products can look old; some even are moldy and black. But if buyers follow some “tricks” of the sellers, these products will become “normal”. For sweet and candies, Chinese products are sold in kilogram with appealing packet. Rice cakes, “rose” chocolate, soft candies, etc. are dog cheap. They have strange taste and are wrapped into small packet, thus, they are easy to use. However, sweet and candies do not have expiry date, label as well as producing place, etc.

In Binh Tay, An Dong, Ben Thanh markets, various kind of soft drink under flour or package form are sold. Instruction in Vietnamese is not printed outside the package. Lohan guo (qu? la hán) is put in a green box with 12 pungent rectangle pieces inside. According to Ms H.- a cafeteria owner- this product has 3 kinds. They have the same appearance. But if you look more carefully, the best kind has a stamp and its price is higher than others.

Chinese spices are various.

Border markets of Lang Son are the most dynamic ones. In Dong Dang Market, at one foodstuff stall, products are displayed so much, even flooding on the path. Most of them are imported from China, such as soya-sauce, salt, seasoning, glutamate, hot pot spices, sauces, spice-mixed food; all are in package and bottles full of Chinese characters. Transparent nylon packages of vegetables soaked into a kind of red thick soup are printed in motley Chinese. None of these words is the expiry date.

Soya-sauce, in particular, has tens kinds. The best 2-liter-soya-sauce bottle is 20,000 VND. Others are only from 8,000 VND to 15,000 VND /2-liter-bottle. Most of this soya-sauce is contained into unsealed milky plastic cans. Label of these cans is all in Chinese. Most do not consist of expiry date, producing place, ingredients, etc. The owner of this food stall quotes at 2/3 retailing price if I have large demand to buy and resell in down town.

Whereas, in Lung Vai Market (China), dry foodstuff traders usually come here to buy, hire porters to carry through tracks, collect at warehouses of Dong Dang Town (Lang Son), and wait till night to split and carry to down town. Price of Chinese food in Lung Vai Market is quite cheap. With some yuan, traders can buy a product (one yuan is equivalent to VND 2,000). For example, a good 2-liter-soya-sauce bottle costs only 5-6 yuan; the price of hot pot spice packet, mixed vegetable is about 0.8 to 1.5 yuan/packet depending on kinds.

Chinese products are fresh by preservative substances

Different from other products, most of Chinese fruits are imported to Vietnam by legal ways through Tan Thanh Border Gate. Ms Hoa, a senior fruit trader in Tan Thanh Market, said Chinese fruit’s price is cheaper 30-40% in comparison with the same domestic one. Characteristics of Chinese fruit are eye-catching appearance, long preservation, and non-over-ripeness. Chinese oranges and tangerines are always bright, shiny, color-evenly, non-suntanned, do not like Vietnamese ones. Chinese red persimmons always have a nice scarlet peel.

Ms Hoa added Chinese fruits’ long-keeping duration and nice peel result from preservative substances. After being harvested, these fruits are soaked into the pool which contains preservative substances for few hours. Then they are fished out and sold. To demonstrate, Ms Hoa took an apple, wrap out its cover, showed the tiny white spots in the peduncle of the apple.

“When wrapping out the cover of apple, the white spots on its peel are preservative substances” said Ms Huong, a small trader in An Dong Market (Ho Chi Minh City). The customers’ health is facing risk when sellers often “upgrade” Chinese products labeled as Australian or American ones to cheat consumers.

Recently, beside Chinese carrots, gingers, potatoes, Vietnam consumers are getting used to Chinese cabbage. Chinese white cabbage is bigger, nicer and cheaper than Da Lat one so it is consumed much in the market. However, nobody knows whether it contains growth stimulant or preservative substances.

Chinese counterfeits flood in EU market

Although the EU has intensively pursued and captured, it can not prevent China’s counterfeits from flooding EU market, according to a report of European Committee announced on May 31st.

In which, customs of European Union (EU) members had seized over 250 millions counterfeits in 2006, an extraordinary increase in comparison with 75 millions counterfeits confiscated in 2005. Among them, 80% are originated from China and belong to all categories, from tobacco, clothes to household appliances, and even pharmaceutical products. EU officials said that they really concern about possibility to cause harm to customers’ health of these imitation drugs and cosmetic.

M.Huy (According to KOMMERSANT)

04/06/2007

Source: vietnamnet
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