Nearly 100 cashew kernel containers fraudulently exported to Italy?

Vietnam Cashew Association (Vinacas) has recently received a number of petitions from cashew processing and exporting enterprises. They stated that they have signed export contracts with some Italian customers through Kim Hanh Viet Brokerage Company with the intention of exporting cashew kernels to Italy. The shipping lines include COSCO, YANGMING, HMM, and ONE. Up to this point, several shipments of cashew kernels have arrived at the ports of Genoa and La Spezia.

However, these enterprises are potentially experiencing signs of fraud.

To be more specific, regarding the documents sent to the Turkish Bank, during the process of sending the documents for collection from Vietnamese banks to the buyer's banks according to instructions, there was a change in the SWIFT number.

After the buyer's bank received the set of documents, these enterprises were informed that the buyer was not their customer and returned the documents but did not specify in what form the payment was made. The Turkish Bank also did not provide the bill of lading to the Vietnamese bank. Although the Vietnamese banks had sent many calls, they received no response.

As for the documents sent to Italy, the Italian bank informed the Vietnamese bank that it had received the set of documents but they were copies, not the originals.

Now businesses are very worried because they do not know where the original documents are. Meanwhile, everyone knows that as long as they have the original documents in hand, they can go to the carrier to receive the goods.

Therefore, businesses all reach the conclusion that this is a big scam because the number is up to nearly 100 containers, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The situation is of great urgency because some shipments have already arrived at the ports in Italy while some others are about to reach the port.

Faced with this situation, on March 8, Vinacas sent an express dispatch to the Vietnamese Embassy and Trade Office in Italy, requesting the Embassy and Trade Office to pay attention and provide support by working with competent authorities and shipping lines in Italy:

• Apply "urgent" measures, temporarily hold consignments that are on the port and will arrive at the port;
• Not release the goods to the consignee even if they present the original bill of lading;
• Only allow to release the goods upon receipt of confirmation from the shipper company (sellers);
• Any information received from the shipping line from the consignee must be immediately notified to the shipper company (seller).

Vietnam Cashew Association is continuing to gather relevant information from the affected businesses. On March 9, Vinacas will work with banks and shipping companies to fully grasp the situation, and then continue to transfer the acquired information to the Vietnamese Embassy and Trade Office in Italy for further coordination.

Vietnam's cashew exports are forecasted to continue to grow in 2022, in which the EU is expected to increase by about 15% in volume and 10% in value compared to 2021 thanks to the advantage of EVFTA. Vietnam Cashew Association is confident that cashew exports in 2022 can reach USD 4 billion, but the question lies in the enthusiasm and proactiveness of domestic enterprises.