With local consumers increasingly turning their backs on Chinese goods, many products have been labeled as Vietnamese to dupe consumers into thinking that they are locally manufactured, and thus manage to win huge consumption despite their poor quality. Traders specializing in selling the disguised Vietnamese goods said many distributors have focused on labeling their Chinese goods with Vietnamese brand names to penetrate the market over the last two years. “Selling becomes far easier with the Vietnamese labels, and you can feel free to charge buyers much higher prices than the real ones,” revealed Khang, who usually sources the disguised products to sell at the exhibitions and fairs. A set of three Chinese knives costs only VND28,000, but when on display at the exhibition under the disguise of a Thai Nguyen product, it fetches VND110,000, he elaborated. “So I can enjoy an enormous VND60 million worth of profits within just five to six days of a fair,” he said.Penetrating the Chinese warehouse Most of the Chinese products disguised as Vietnamese-made are sourced from a warehouse owned by Mai, a local woman married to a Chinese man, on Nguyen Xi Street in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh District. In her 30s, Mai has five years of experience in distributing Chinese goods to localities from the central region to the Mekong Delta. “All of my merchandise is imported from China,” she said. The 300-square-meter warehouse is full of cartons containing 20 different types of Chinese goods, mostly household products. For certain products such as mops, massage machines, chargeable lamps, and knives, Mai also provdes her customers with preprinted labels bearing Vietnamese names. The labels read Van Gia mop, Dat Vang Vietnam massage machine, and Thai Nguyen knives, with dubious information about the origin and manufacturer, going against Vietnamese product label regulations. “It’s up to you if you wish to place labels with other Vietnamese brands on the products,” she said. But she added that other brand names will not be able to compete with her own, as “they have established a good reputation over two years.” Selling like hot cakes Mai said she is enjoying the season of high demand, with dozens of trucks carrying the disguised products to be distributed in other provinces on a daily basis. While she usually imports the products from China once a month, the frequency has recently been increased to two to three times to meet demand. But the products are all of substandard quality despite their exorbitant prices. The Thai Nguyen knives are advertised as “being made from the Thai Nguyen steel that is taken from deep inside the earth,” but the blades in fact become rusty after just three days of usage. Similarly, the cleaning mops are sold at the warehouse at VND150,000 an item, but under the Van Gia label, they are sold to consumers for as much as VND300,000 each.