Fish sauce manufacturing facilities and households in many coastal localities across Vietnam are experiencing a raw material shortage as Chinese traders have increasingly bought anchovy, the main material needed to produce the delicacy, in bulk. The mass anchovy purchase of Chinese traders has negatively impacted fish sauce makers in Phan Thiet and Khanh Hoa, confirmed Dao Minh Hai, deputy head of the Market Management Agency under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, in a press briefing on Monday. The Market Management Agency has been watching over the Chinese traders, but has yet to detect any cases in which the foreign men directly purchase and transport the seafood, he said. “They still hire local residents to buy the anchovy and transport them to China,” he explained. Hai said his agency will seek advice from the ministry to effectively curb the phenomenon. The number of foreign traders entering Vietnam to collect goods en mass has increasingly risen, and their activities are getting more complicated, the Ministry of Industry and Trade said at a meeting last month. The foreign traders, mostly from China, have been purchasing large quantities of seafood and agricultural products, helping generate jobs and income for local farmers, but some have left negative impacts on the local market, Vo Van Quyen, head of the ministry’s Domestic Market Agency, said in a statement. “Some contributed to increase in prices of agricultural products, affecting the sources of raw materials of local manufacturers, with some defaulting on their seafood purchases,” elaborated Quyen.