In a strange phenomenon, residents in many mountainous communes in central Binh Dinh Province have rushed to pick a kind of poisonous fungus and allegedly sell them to Chinese traders, a food safety agency reported. They sell them for VND30,000 (US$1.42) per kilogram and do not know why the Chinese traders are buying them, the Health Ministry’s Department for Food Safety and Hygiene said. The mushroom trade has boomed in certain communes recently, including An Toan, in An Lao District. The fungus, known in Vietnamese as “nấm hòm”, usually grows in wet forests in the province. When dried, the ear and the body of the mushroom turn black, release a pungent smell, and are too toxic to eat, the department said. M., a woman from An Toan said, “This kind of mushroom is easily found in forests, so almost everyone picked them to sell to Chinese traders.” M. said she collects the mushroom and sells them to a trader in Hoai Nhon District. The Department warned everyone to take precautions against this toxic fungus for safety reasons. Recently, one person died and three others were hospitalized in Gia Lai, a province in the Central Highlands, after eating a kind of poisonous mushroom, the department said.