Chinese people have been flocking to Cam Ranh City in Khanh Hoa province, which is considered the biggest grouper fish farming area in Vietnam, not only to collect aquatic products, but also to raise valuable aquatic creatures such as grouper fish and lobster.

Chinese merchants in Cam Ranh City

The problem is that Chinese people have been settling and farming fish here for the last many years, but the local authorities still look embarrassed when dealing with the problem

Chinese fish cages everywhere

All the fishermen and traders near the Cam Ranh port know the ponds where Chinese people raise fish and shrimp. 

Dat, a local resident, said he knows a lobster farm of a Chinese person named A Xiu, located next to the Cam Ranh port, while the grouper fish cages of other Chinese are put on the bay, about 200 meters away. Each cage of fish and lobster costs billions of dong.

The fish farm of A Xiu includes solid firm blocks with fence and high gates, which look quite differently from the Vietnamese farms nearby. However, when approaching to the farm, Sai gon Tiep Thi’s reporters saw that the farm was locked.

Getting onto a boat, the reporters left the port to visit the fish rafts of Chinese people on the bay. A raft was situated just hundreds of meters far from the Cam Ranh port. Staying on the place, one would easily see the military port on the other side of the bay.

Chinese rafts stand out from the sea with their big sizes and look much more imposing than the Vietnamese rafts nearby. The Chinese rafts, like A Xiu’s fish farm, do not have signboards, while they are fastened to each other. There are many cages in every raft, and there are three tin roofed houses with the total area of 100 square meters.

Huy, a local resident said he works for a fish raft managed by Chinese, and that six Chinese are working here, taking care for 100 cages. Besides, the Chinese also collect grouper fish from everywhere, especially in Cam Ranh, Phu Yen and Phu Quy Island.

“All the Chinese here can speak Vietnamese, because they have been living here for 6-7 years. They weigh products, purchase fish and sell fish, while I only have to take care for the fish,” Huy said.

“Thousands of tons of fish are exported to China every year. Sometimes, a Chinese ship docks at the raft and take fish away,” he said.

The reporters could see some fishing boats staying around the raft. They were from Khanh Hoa and Binh Thuan provinces, carrying fish there to sell to Chinese. Two Chinese men named A Ngan and A Keng were seen supervising Vietnamese workers. 

A Ngan said he was from Guang Zhou, who specialized in collecting and breeding grouper fish. The grouper fish to be collected in Vietnam would be brought to China, where the fish would be bred further before they are sold.

Local authorities: “They do this spontaneously. We do not license them”

According to Nguyen Thanh Long, Deputy Head of the Market Management Taskforce No. 3, there are at least four Chinese establishments that are collecting fish and an aquatic breeding center in Cam Ranh City. The establishments are managed by Chinese, but they are under the names of Vietnamese people.

Meanwhile, Tran Tinh, Deputy Chair of the Cam Linh ward People’s Committee, thinks that there is only one Chinese business base in the city, where 5-7 Chinese people are working. The business base has been registered as a Vietnamese company called Khai Hoan Company Ltd.

“They rent land from Vietnamese people, while they make fish cakes and rafts on the sea. We do not license them,” Tinh said.

“We really do not know how many Chinese people on the fish rafts,” he said.

Source: SGTT/ VNN