On the afternoon of June 11, the Vietnam Pepper and Spice Association reported that a number of businesses had reported the "stolen" of a series of coffee and pepper shipments, suspected to have occurred at Cat Lai port, District 2. According to initial information, the volume of lost goods accounted for 7-28% of the total export volume, depending on the market.

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Road to Cat Lai port, District 2, Thu Duc City. Photo: TCT TCSG

However, on the evening of June 11, Tan Cang Saigon Corporation (TCT TCSG) officially responded to the Vietnam Pepper and Spice Association regarding the above information.

According to the information received, the functional departments of Saigon Newport Corporation are currently working with competent units and agencies to verify the information about the shortage of goods provided by the Association. However, the information that the Association provided about goods suspected of being "withdrawn" at Cat Lai port is unfounded.

Saigon New Port Corporation explained: "The risk of lost goods can occur at many stages. Therefore, there is no basis to confirm that it happened at Cat Lai port. The flow of goods moving from the seller's warehouse to the buyer's warehouse must go through stages in the supply chain such as sea transport, to the unloading port, transport from the port to the importer's warehouse... which need to be verified to avoid causing misunderstandings as well as affecting the port's brand."

Currently, Saigon Newport Corporation is coordinating with the authorities and requests the Association to cooperate to verify and clarify the incident.

In addition, in the response letter, Saigon Newport Corporation also requested the Association to remove the information posted on the website previously, correct it and re-announce on the website about coordinating work to verify the problem of goods shortage, suspected to have occurred at Cat Lai port.

Previously, information from the Vietnam Pepper and Spice Association showed that 5 businesses reported that their exported coffee and pepper shipments were in short supply when delivered to partners, with an estimated quantity of about 10.32 tons of coffee and 8.25 tons of pepper.

The businesses also said that they had all the necessary documents and weighing slips to prove the consistency of the container load at the factory and at Cat Lai port. However, the import partners reported errors in the weighing of the goods at the destination port, showing that the quantity of coffee and pepper had decreased significantly compared to the original contract.

That's why suspicions arose about coffee and pepper being siphoned off at Cat Lai port, during the same time the ship was delayed.