Investigations conducted by the Environment Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security show that the bulk of smuggled sturgeon is being legalized at breeding farms in the northern region.
Police officials have surveyed sturgeon farms near border areas between Vietnam and China in Cao Bang, Lao Cai, Lai Chau, Son La and Bac Giang Provinces and found that smugglers had found easy ways to transport illegal fish into these farms and legalize them as domestic bred produce.
The Environment Police Department has now proposed to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to survey such farms in the country and estimate the status quo of local seafood farming and grant certificates of origin and quarantine to genuine produce only.
Over the last few months, the Environment Police Department has worked with relevant organs to nab 40 cases of illegal transport and trade of seafood products from China. They seized 30 tons of seafood, including ten tons of sturgeons and issued penalties of nearly VND200 million (US$9,400).
Although smuggling of sturgeons has reduced recently, upto two tons of the fish are still being transported across the northern border for consumption in Hanoi and other provinces, every single day.
The price of illicit sturgeon is about VND70,000 at border areas, and rockets to VND130,000-150,000 in Hanoi, while a kilogram of domestic sturgeon fetches a high VND200,000, with limited supply.
Because of the huge gap in profits, smugglers resort to a lot of tricks to transport the fish from China for consumption in the local markets.
