Sleepless nights in wholesale markets.

* “ Basket of vegetable” of the city

. Labors earn their livings thanks to careers of transporting and loading in markets.

From 8p.m, A lot of vehicles bustle in and out Tan Bien key market of vegetables, fruits ( It was invested by Tin Nghia company and came into operation from the middle of last year.). The later at night the market is, the more people buy and sell in there. Besides, more vehicles go in and out and such bustling life lasts until early morning.

Cabbage, cauliflower, potato, tomato, onion, watercress, and red pepper,.. come from Lam Dong. Pineapple, watermelon, mango, orange, and mandarin,… are transported from gardens of the west. As for vegetables, basella alba, lettuce, cabbage, bean, pea, bitter melon, luffa, calabash, squash,… are transported from Tri An Vegetable region and Gia Kiem… ( Dong Nai province).           

Life of vegetable wholesale traders begins from evenings. After enough amounts of goods are collected, traders convoy goods to markets. They are busy selling and buying until early morning and then they come back home to relax in some hours as well as arrange family affairs. After that, they hurriedly look for vegetable to buy from gardens for night market. Among merchandizing turns, they often take a quick sleep for a moment and they have bowls of soup for a snack or a glass of coffee to resist being sleepy.

Merchandizing in wholesale markets is in some ways. For example, people who having fund open a “barn” to collect vegetable to wholesale; people having less money invest stalls and buy back fruit and vegetable of fellow traders and then they bundle, trim and rinse sand and soil off and resell them to small traders. Using hands as a lighting to choose vegetable in a rented stall in the center of a market, husband and wife-Mrs. Le Thi Hoa (21 years old), are fairly young and new traders in Tan Bien. They said that before Hoa worked in a company in industrial zone but later she went to market to buy vegetable and wholesale to fellow traders.  

In last time, Hoa traded in an area in front of 30-4 theater. Since this market was set up, she rented stall from the owner to trade in only one good – TungHo. Everyday, these couple buy goods transported from Da Lat and then they rinse soil and sand off, remove battered vegetable, make small bundles of vegetable and sell them to fellow traders. Every night, Hoa’s small stands sell about 3 quintals of vegetable. If vegetables are fresh, sold quickly with a good price, Hoa can earn over VND100,000. Monthly, deducting stands leasing and other expenses, Hoa gets a profit of about VND1.5 million.   

Sitting in a hidden corner of the night market and having no capital to wholesale  or no money to rent stands, an old person at the age of about 80 with opaque eyes and 2 disabled hands is meticulously depriving every spring onion branch beside a bundle of spring onion whose root was plucked off. She is Nguyen Thi Que who is living in Ho Nai ward. Her only son and his wife are handicapped. Additionally, she has to rear her children; therefore, Mrs. Que has had to try her best to earn a living.  Every night, she goes to the market to buy tens of kilos of  spring onion on the nod in barns and then she uses an old knife to clean every branch and sell them to retailing buyers. For one kilo, she gets a profit of VND1,000. Sitting to deprive spring onion from late night to early morning, Her eyes are stung and tears are overflowing because of pungent gas. Moreover, Her hands are tired out. But, for her, when night comes, she still can go to the market and work to earn a living, which is her humble happiness left.          

·        Hoa An with 2 turns of night market.

With Hoa An wholesale market,“ life pace” of every night begins fairly early by lines of vehicles coming up and down and transporting freshwater fish from everywhere to the market. As usual, at about 8p.m or 9p.m, aquatic products begin to flock to the market. This is the first turn of night market. Many people trading in fish said that freshwater fish bred in lakes currently is fattest and sweetest.

Fish is bought from Tri An Lake, fish rafts along Dong Nai river, and districts such as Vinh Cuu, Long Thanh, Thaong Nhat.. and then cased in pails of water and transported on vehicles to city. Not like vehicles transporting fruit and vegetables and sea food goods, vehicles transporting freshwater fish are equipped particularly with tens of barrels of water loaded in the vehicle, paddle aerators, diesel engines,… to ensure that fish sold to customers is still fresh and can wriggle.. and make water splash so that fish can be sold because no customer wants to buy dead fish. Ms. Kieu Diem, a wholesale trader in freshwater fish from Vinh Cuu complained that no trade was thankless like fish traders. Alive fish could be sold with good price and dead fish just could be sold to make food for pig”.

Everyday, Ms Diem and her husband ride a lorry to hang around to buy fish. When the night comes, they go to the market to deliver customers about 500-600 kilos of fishes. They sell fish until early morning and later they ride the lorry home and relax in some hours before they continue to work hard in new process : hold collecting fish, fish in barrel and then transport to the wholesale market.

Customers coming to the first market turn are small traders from nearby markets also consisting of ones from industrial zones in Thuan An, Di An ( Binh Duong). Some people even equipped oxygen aerator tied to the motorbike. After buying fish, they still put fish in barrels of water and use the oxygen aerator when transport fish. As Nghiem, a fish trader in An Duc Market said “Making more efforts can make fish still fresh so that fish can be sold with good price”.

While the front of Hoa An wholesale market is a place for fish from Tri an river from 7p.m to 8p.m (the first market turn) with a lot of kinds of fresh fish, the back of the market is a place for professional fish wholesalers with fish transported from Bien Hoa market.

This is freshwater fish area with fish such as snakehead fish, basa fish, catfish, …, squid, shrimp and marine fishes. Freshwater fish, river fish and marine fish are transported from the West, The Middle, Vung Tau, Long Hai to Hoa An from 11p.m. 

Hanging around wholesale markets in this season showed that time after Tet has been the “climax” of saltwater fish. Therefore, night fish markets are bustling with tens of kinds of saltwater fish.  

Human life- Market life.

Some people consider trade a job although that trade is small. Two siblings Tran thi Kim Anh and Tran thi Ngoc Anh are pleasant and tidy in turn of Tan Bien night market. After graduating from high school, two siblings didn’t go to work in industrial zones but trade in greens at once. Born in Da Lat, they have been loyal to greens products from Da Lat although they live in Ho Nai now. Everyday, about 2 tons of greens are sold by them.

It is not only hardship but also worry of seller and buyers in night wholesale markets. It sponges on poor workers, assistants,…as well. They work from the late night until early morning when they take care of their own daily life.

Source: DongNai Newspaper, translated by THKC.