News from the Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas) this morning (April 20) said that a Vinacas enterprise had just had 5 containers of cashew nuts exported by the Mostaganem Port Customs, Algeria auctioned off without notice.
The business is facing the risk of losing the entire shipment, with a total value of about 466,900 USD (nearly 11 billion VND).
Currently, according to the shipping company, 2 containers have been emptied of their contents and the remaining 3 containers are still in the customs warehouse of the neighboring country. The Vietnamese company is trying to work with a number of Vietnamese ministries, agencies and the Algerian government to request a settlement and compensation for the shipment.
According to the company (who requested anonymity), the Mostaganem Port Customs violated international practice by arbitrarily auctioning the shipment without notifying the owner of the shipment. “We only received information about the incident after the customs publicly auctioned the restricted shipment,” said the representative of the company that lost the goods.
Realizing that the shipment was at risk of being lost, the company sent a dispatch to relevant agencies to request assistance, and at the same time, sent someone to fly to Algeria to work directly with the Mostaganem Port Customs from March 28, 2023. The company sent a dispatch requesting to work with Algerian authorities through the General Department of Customs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance , Vietnam Trade Office in Algeria, and Algerian Embassy in Vietnam.
The enterprise requested that Algeria send an official document clarifying the customs auction process, handling principles and applicable laws, but so far the enterprise has not received any response.
Regarding the incident, on April 13, the Vietnamese Trade Office in Algeria issued a document warning businesses when exporting goods to Algeria.
Specifically, the agency said that in August 2022, a Vietnamese company exported 5 containers of cashews to Algeria through an intermediary, a business located in South Africa. The intermediary company received a deposit of 10% of the value of the goods. However, when the goods arrived at Mostaganem port, the Vietnamese company's customer, Eurl ATS Food Company of Algeria, could not complete customs clearance procedures because the company was included in the list of commercial fraud enterprises by the Algerian Ministry of Commerce since June 2022.
The shipper is a Vietnamese enterprise and the shipping line completed procedures to change the consignee to Eurl Azur Oran Company (Algeria) at the request of an intermediary in South Africa, but Algerian customs did not accept "because Eurl ATS Food Company has lost the legal capacity to carry out procedures such as importing, receiving or re-exporting goods".
After nearly 8 months at the port, Algerian customs auctioned off 5 containers of cashews from a Vietnamese company. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese export company has not yet received the remaining payment from the intermediary.
Previously, VietNamNet reported that in February 2022, 36 containers worth more than VND100 billion of a Vietnamese enterprise also lost complete control when the goods arrived at a port in Italy. It is unclear how the criminal organization swapped all the original documents of the shipment. At that time, anyone with the original documents could receive the goods from the exporting enterprise from Vietnam.
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