Binh Phuoc strictly punishes traders of poor quality cashew nuts

After a time of investigating, scouts from the Environmental Police Office under the Binh Phuoc Police had discovered a network of production, sale and consumption of processed cashew kernels, along with many other food products including dried chicken, peas, dried fruits and snacks of all kinds in Bu Dang District and Phuoc Long Town.

Basing on information and documents collected from December 18 to December 30, 2020, the Environmental Police Ofice in co-ordination with the inspector of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and local police had conducted inspections on workshops of four business and production households in Binh Phuoc Province.

The four households are those of Diep Thi Chau in village 6, Bom Bo Commune, Bu Dang District; Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang and Dang Thi Minh Thin in village 1, Duong Muoi Commune, Bu Dang District; and Tran Thi Anh Dao in Binh Giang 2 Street quarter, Son Giang Ward, Phuoc Long Town.

Through inspections, the police found that all such four business households had been proceeding illegal producing, processing, and trading of cashew nuts and other food products without licences of food safety as prescribed by the law. Authorities had temporarily seized 13,253 kg of products of all kinds, of which were 5,836.7 kg of cashew nut products such as salted cashew nuts and cashew nuts with garlic, chocolate and lemongrass.

According to a representative of the provincial Environmental Police Ofice, all the cashew kernels discovered in these four business households were poor in quality, unsafe for human consumption and even discarded just for the processing of animal feed. However, some people living in Binh Phuoc province with their cupid of large profits had not hesitated to supply these low-quality materials for local business and production households to make up and processed into products under brand name of Binh Phuoc cashew and then sell them at cheap prices in domestic markets through advertising on social networks.

The cashew nut kernels seized at the four households are very poor in quality and sold at very cheap prices in the markets through social network advertisements. Photo: CACC.

It was reported that recently, especially on the eve of the upcoming Lunar New Year Holiday 2021, there appeared on social networks including Facebook, many live streams advertising Binh Phuoc cashew nuts at very cheap prices, just equal to only half of the current official prices of the real Binh Phuoc cashew. Thus, to cope with such serious violation of the real Binh Phuoc cashew nut brand, the Binh Phuoc Cashew Association sent a petition to the Binh Phuoc Polic and the province’s Department of Science and Technology to request clarification of this issue.

Regarding the above issue, Mr. Dang Ha Giang - Director of Binh Phuoc Province’s Department of Science and Technology spoke to reporter of the Vietnam Agriculture Newspaper that: “Viewpoints and directions of the Department of Science and Technology for such activities as producing, trading and stockpiling fake products, goods of unknown origin, especially acts of infringing upon intellectual property rights are that they will be strictly punished according to the provisions of law”.

Accordingly, in Government Decree No. 99/2013/ND-CP dated August 29, 2013 stipulating the administrative sanction on violations in the field of industrial property, criminal constituents will be proceeded for acts of infringing upon geographical indication rights. They shall be examined for penal liability. Besides, for acts of infringing upon the geographical indication rights of Binh Phuoc cashew nuts related to "domain name", they can be considered and handled according to the Intellectual Property Law./.