DOES THE RACE AFFTECT TO FISH PRICE AT FULTON FISH MARKET?

Agricultural market is usually considered as a highly competitive market, and one of the main features of competitive market is the rule of one price. However, in the “Testing for imperfect competition at the Fulton fish market” research in 1995, Kathryn had observed that different customers paid different prices for the same kind of fish at Fulton market in New York City. More detail, Kathryn considered that white consumers paid 7% more than the Asian paid for whiting. This is a situation that opposites with the competitive market characteristics. That is the reason why the author collected data to test if the race has an effect on the price at Fulton fish market.

Fist of all, the author chose whiting for the study and to collect the data because of three reasons. The first reason is whiting took place in many transactions, and it appeared more than other fishes. Moreover, whiting does not have much difference in size and in quality. The last reason is that from the collected data, it suggested that whiting salesman should be the only observation in the research. To collect data, the author used two methods, one from the inventories sheet of dealer because all transactions were shown in the sheets. The second method is collecting data by hand. The author had recorded 489 transactions in whiting for 19 days he spent at the market. He considered that the transactions being collected by hand closely matched with the information from the inventory data sheets.

Some of descriptions from the data are: price fluctuates from $0.82/ lb. to $0.89/ lb. from Monday to Friday. The average quantity received round 7,454 lb., the average quantity sold around 7,540 lb. There are three ethnic groups at Fulton market are: Asian group, black group and white group. Asian is the largest buyer group at this market, purchasing 62% of total quantity sold. The variables are: time of trade, a dummy variable, TIM1 if the transaction took place before 5am, from 5 am to 6 am is TIM2. MLOC is also a dummy variable, receives value 1 if the location is in Manhattan or in Brooklyn, STORE receives value 1 if the establishment is a store, dummy variable ASIAN equals to 1 if the customer is Asian, dummy variable BLACK equals to 1 if that customer is black, average quantity purchased by customer during the study period is AVQUAN, CASH is also a dummy variable, receives value 1 if that transaction in cash, REG is the number of times that a customer make a purchase in this period.

The model is:

Price = 0.0074 TIM1 + 0.019 TIM2 – 0.019 MLOC + 0.0247 STORE – 0.0635 ASIAN + 0.0004 BLACK -3.97 AVQUAN + 0.0168 CASH – 0.0007 REG

The regression supported the idea that race have an effect on the price of whiting at Fulton fish market. According to the model, holding other factors fixed, an Asian buyer paid 6.35% less than a white consumer did. Moreover, a black also paid 0.4% for whiting more than a white customer did, held other factors constant. There is a significant difference in the price between Asian and white customer. Therefore, race has affected to the price at Fulton fish market, and this conclusion supported that the Fulton is an imperfect competition market.

WATER POLLUTION IN VIETNAM

In 2008, Vedan factory, a foreign company, released their industrial untreated wastewater to Thi Vai River caused fishes and biology system in the river to die, and make Thi Vai become a dead river. In 2010, people in a small village in Thai Nguyen sue a fertilize factory because most people in that village get cancer, and they suspect that the reason is from the water, and that factory pour wastewater to the river. There is many rivers in Vietnam are suffering very bad pollution, and two reasons result in this water pollution are: wastewater from factories, and garbage from citizens.

The main reason that make river pollute seriously is the releasing untreated water from factories into river. Most of the companies don’t have the wastewater treatment system, and many industrial zones in Vietnam don’t have plant for treating water before throw out to the river. Because of the high cost to invest a wastewater treatment system in comparison with the small amount of money they can be fined due to the law of Vietnam if the government detect that they pour wastewater to the environment, many companies choose to pollute the environment and be fined an a amount of money to do that. In case of Vedan factory above, Thi Vai becomes a dead river for many years until now, even though it is recovering, however, the recovery is very slow. The consequence from that water pollution in Thi Vai River is huge. People live near that river (include 3 provinces: Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai and Ba Ria – Vung Tau) were affected on many aspects. Polluted water afftects their health because people use water from that river for their daily activities. Moreover, their economy is also affected, for example, people use water for agriculture, and people who live by fishing. It takes many years for Thi Vai River to recover. However, Vedan was fined only 6 millions dollar for 14 years (from 1994 to 2008) released polluted water to Thi Vai River. This is a small amount if we it compare to the cost they have to spend to treat the wastewater in 14 years. In the second story, people from that village lost because there was not enough evidences that proving people get cancer because of using water. In both cases, people and environment were affected seriously.

A second reason that pollutes water is coming from citizens. Garbage from households was thrown into the river because at some place, there is no system to treat the garbage. Moreover, it also comes from people mind, many people want to save money, and so they choose not to treat or recycle trash. The  images below are common in residential areas. 

Polluted water result in the serious effect to people, especially to their health. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment state that almost 80% of the diseases in Vietnam are caused by polluted water. There are many cases of cholera, typhoid, dysentery and malaria each year in the country. There are many solutions to improve the environment in Vietnam. One of the main tasks for Vietnam government is change the law to prevent factories from leasing wastewater to the river. The government should pay attention to invest trash treatment system at residential area, and educate citizen to protect the environment.

VIETNAMESE STUDENTS LACK PRACTICAL SKILLS

In 2014, the unemployment rate is 4.424% in comparison with the total labor force. On the other hand, the total of student face unemployment faces 20.75% in the total. Every year, thousands of student graduate from many universities, colleges in Vietnam. However, they still find it’s hard to find a job because they can’t meet the requirement from recruiters.

Most of students are lacking practicing skills because Vietnam’s education system just focuses on pure theories without real knowledge. Moreover, students at colleges usually take from 24 to 30 credits each semester, so they don’t have enough time to research or learn more in that field. Almost students just learn because of score, or they want to pass the classes. Those are the reasons why Vietnamese students learn a lot, but they can’t use their knowledge in reality when they have real jobs. Moreover, in classes professors or instructors give lecture about the theories in books, there are not many real examples to illustrate. In addition, contents of books are also theories. Books don’t include example from the reality, so it’s very boring for students to read and remember. On the other hand, these books are out of date. For instance, I learned last semester in 2012, but the books for that semester were published in 2004. I remember one time I had a conversation with one of my professors. He asked me many questions about Vietnam trade, Vietnam’s economy. Most of those questions I can’t have good answers, even though I got my bachelor in Business Administration, and my GPA is not bad. Another story about my classmate, the recruiter was impressive with my friend’s resume because her GPA is excellent. However, she failed in the interview because she didn’t know how to solve a situation that recruiter asked her. After applying to many companies, and having many interviews, she got a job but not in her major. This story is very common in Vietnam, there are a lot of students have jobs different from their majors.

One more reason for lacking skills of students is they are passive in learning and working. Because of the culture, parents take care of their kids so much; they don’t allow their children to have part-time job when they are at school. Most of parents in Vietnam want their children to focus on school when they are student. However, this is not a good idea because these students don’t have any experience from working. There is nothing to show on their resume besides learning. Thus, students can’t meet the requirements from recruiters, although they finished four years at university.

There are two solutions to improve practical skills for students. First of all, we should improve our education system. The undergraduate programs should be reduced to 15 to 18 credits per semester. Moreover, students shouldn’t learn theories purely, they should be taught about real situations, case study. The books should be more up date frequently, and the lecture should include more examples to help student remember better. Almost professors and instructors in Vietnam work for companies, or own their businesses, so they will have a lot of real stories to share with students. By these ways, students learn actively, and up date the knowledge better. Secondly, parents should encourage their children have part-time job when they are student. These part-time jobs can help student earn experience; know how to deal with real situations, and it can help their resume be better when applying for a full time job.

HOW TO INCREASE PROFIT FOR FARMERS IN VIETNAM

Both my aunt and my uncle are farmers. They work really hard on their farm, however they don’t earn much money. As well as my relatives, many other farmers work on their field whole year, but they don’t make as much profit as they should have got. There is a reality is almost farmers in Vietnam are poor, low income and less education. Many of them think that they make profit by working hard; they don’t have knowledge about market, or how to do marketing for their products to get higher benefits. Despite how hard they work, they just earn very little profit in comparison with intermediate wholesalers who do business by buying agricultural products from farmers to sell to consumers, retailers. You will be surprised by the big differences between price that wholesalers buy from farmers and the price when they sell to retailer. For example, a kilogram watermelon that a wholesaler buy at the farm will be 500 – 1,000 VND, however, when they sell to retailers, it will be around 6,000 – 8,000 VND. And when that watermelon comes to consumers, it is around 10,000 -12,000 VND per kilogram. There is a huge difference in price, and a very difference in profit among farmers, wholesalers and retailers.

In the story above, farmers are the hardest workers; nevertheless, they earn the least. There is unfair in allocating surplus in society in Vietnam, and that is one of the reasons why the distance between the rich and the poor is getting larger and larger. In 2010, there was a story about a group of 4 students who come from Ben Tre province, where is famous for milk fruit, they saw the inequity their parents and other farmers from Ben Tre received, so they decided they would found the market for milk fruit without selling through wholesalers. Their story was on newspapers at that time, moreover, in 2011, there was a film made from that story. Instead of selling milk fruits through intermediate wholesalers, they connected directly with the retailers in Ho Chi Minh City, where is the main market for milk fruits. They also found the purchasing department of supermarkets to offer good price for providing milk fruit.  By those ways, they helped their parents and farmers increase their profit a lot.

Connecting directly with retailers is a way to raise profit for farmers. However, it doesn’t always works efficiently in case farmers just have small amount of agricultural product, so the cost to find their own market will high. In this situation, the authority at that local should protect farmers by having an organization to buy these products and sell to factories, retailers or to export. On the other hand, to avoid farmers from producing too much that organization can’t solve an enormous amount, the authority should have an announcement to farmers how much they will buy from each farmer base on the area that farmer has. Besides, the government should also have policies to help farmers by subsidy of setting minimum prices. 

LAND ALLOCATION IN AGRICULTURE

Recently, Vietnam transfers from an agricultural economy to an industrialization country, so land spends on agriculture reducing for residential areas. Base on the purposes of using, land is divided into 5 categories: agricultural land, forestry land, land for residential areas, specialized land and unused land. Along with the renovation of economy in 1986 was known as “Doi Moi”, the structure of the economy has changed, so the allocation of land has changed. More details, in 1986, 34% GDP of Vietnam’s economies came from agriculture, but it decreased less than 20% in 2013. In the same period, industry increased from 17% to 42% in total of GDP, became the main sector of economy. Agricultural products such as: rice, coffee, rubber, tea, pepper, soybeans are the main goods for export. Vietnam is ranked to be the second country in South East Asia export rice. Red Delta River and Cuu Long Delta River are two areas for agriculture. However, those two areas have been affected by the industrialization. Agricultural land areas are narrowing for expanding the residential areas and industrial zones. For example, in 2009, Ha Noi capital expanded it scale by merger Ha Tay province, one part of Vinh Phuc province and 4 villages belong to Hoa Binh province.  This expansion has decreased the area for agriculture, moreover, land near these areas become more expensive because the farmers change to residential land instead of agricultural land. One more example is Can Tho province, which belongs to Cuu Long Delta River, is known as main rice supplying for export. However, its major strategy at present is focusing on developing industry and services sectors. More and more factories are built in Can Tho; more and more businesses are established here; labor force transfers from agriculture to industry and services, those are the reasons that make the agriculture land are narrowing in Can Tho.

We can see these changes apparently in Ho Chi Minh City, the biggest city in Vietnam, where this change has occurred sustainably, and we can consider the most obviously how this process affect to the reallocation of land purposes. In 1990, the land in Ho Chi Minh was very cheap; both land in the center and suburban. Most of the land located in suburban areas used to be used for planting. Nevertheless, Ho Chi Minh City has rapidly urbanized from the renovation of Vietnam in 1896, almost the suburban are used as residential land now.

Industrialization and modernization are two main focus of Vietnam to develop as same as other developing country. Vietnam shifts from an agricultural country to an industrial country, a long target that Vietnam is approaching. Due to that development, narrowing agricultural land for industrial purposes is necessary, however, we should consider how to reallocate land in a reasonable way. There are some project still be considered about expanding 4 biggest city in Vietnam are: Ha Noi Capital, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang City and Can Tho City. The common feature of these projects is transferring agricultural land to residential land.  If these projects are accepted, a huge amount land using for planting will decrease. Vietnam might be no longer has enough agricultural products for export. Therefore, my main focus is how to balance these needs of land.