Investigation into Southeast Asia foreign trade chaos: why did 120 cartons of goods disappear withou

Undoubtedly, Southeast Asia remains a hotbed for the vaping industry. According to incomplete statistics, companies like Jingjia, Hongfu, Huabao, Meishenwei, Changhan, and Honeycomb Workshop have gradually entered the next stage, with many starting to ramp up production capacity and improve yield.

However, it seems that getting a piece of this pie is not easy. In a previous article titled “Vaping Going Abroad: Six Months of Investigation (Part 1): Low Efficiency, High Freight, Expensive Raw Materials, Already Oversupplied”, we shared that factors such as low efficiency, expensive raw materials, and high transportation costs have largely made it difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to benefit from production cost advantages.

Additionally, through discussions with numerous industry practitioners, we learned that due to different vaping regulations in various countries, there are many chaotic phenomena in vaping trade activities in Southeast Asia. For instance, some practitioners have encountered situations where, while exporting to markets with vaping bans through gray channels, freight companies collaborated with relevant authorities to seize their goods, resulting in significant losses.

To uncover this incident, we spoke with an insider, Brother Zhang. It should be noted that the following content does not represent the position of our company; we firmly believe that trade activities in any market should comply with local laws and regulations.

According to Brother Zhang, the incident began when the party involved sent a batch of over 120 cartons of vaping products from Country A to Country B. Due to the existing vaping ban in Country B, these cartons were also entrusted to a freight company to enter Country B through "gray channels" as per "convention".

However, unexpectedly, these 120 cartons of vaping products were directly seized by the relevant authorities within Country A. Initially, the party involved did not panic, thinking it was just a matter of "paying a little money to resolve it," and began making preparations accordingly.

But soon, they realized something was wrong, as they discovered that under the freight company's arrangement, the 120 cartons of vaping products were taking a route that they would never normally take. According to Brother Zhang, the party involved suspected that the freight company might have contacted the relevant authorities along the way, following their instructions directly to the destination, leading to the direct seizure of the 120 cartons of vaping products.

The party then approached the relevant authorities, but they stated that only 35 cartons had been seized, not over 120; when they turned to the freight company, the freight company claimed they did not know why the authorities only recognized 35 cartons. The party thus fell into a situation of passing the buck.

Brother Zhang revealed that this practitioner had not been in the Southeast Asian vaping trade for long and was unaware of many of the "rules". After consulting with other peers, they learned that it was highly likely that there was a vested interest between the freight company and the authorities, preparing to seize their 120 cartons and privately sell them through their channels.

"He didn't want to just accept this," Brother Zhang revealed to us: "He immediately went to report to the local authorities, saying that over 100 cartons of goods had been seized. However, the authorities directly stated that they would not take responsibility unless he withdrew the report and re-reported that only 35 cartons had been seized, then they would return the goods and collect a fine. He then realized that reporting to the police might not be useful after all."

According to Brother Zhang, it is rumored that every week, at least 2-3 batches of goods between Countries A and B are seized in the aforementioned manner, becoming "mouse goods". These "mouse goods" may later be sold by others and appear on the market.

This situation has led practitioners engaged in such trade to develop a set of coping strategies, shipping in batches of ten to twenty cartons. They believe that even if one batch is seized, if the calculations show a profit, the business can continue.

In our view, since such trade carries extremely high risks, why not conduct completely compliant trade according to relevant regulations? Brother Zhang stated: "Firstly, this is an inherently non-compliant market; even if they declare customs through regular processes, the other party cannot accept it; secondly, if they follow the regular process, they simply do not have the patience to wait for all the layers of procedures to be completed."

According to Brother Zhang, what they value is not profit, but getting the business "moving." "They generally calculate like this: for 1 million worth of goods, going through normal customs and shipping takes 20 days to earn 300,000. Using gray channels takes 5 days to earn 100,000. So, shipping several batches in the same time can earn even more, which is the main reason for their small-batch, multi-batch operations," Brother Zhang revealed to us.

Once again, it should be emphasized that the above content does not represent our company's position; restoring this incident is merely to provide reference for foreign trade practitioners to further understand the current state of overseas trade ecology. We will continue to pay attention to overseas trade, and if you are also a foreign trade practitioner, feel free to scan the QR code below to add us for further communication. #p#分页标题#e#