Smuggled chicken feet from disease-hit countries reach Vietnam's restaurants, police say

A Vietnamese firm smuggled in about 12,000 tons of frozen chicken feet, much of it from countries hit by poultry disease, then sold more than 10,000 tons on the domestic market, Hanoi police said on June 19.

When officers raided a cold storage facility on the edge of Hanoi, they found 260 tons of frozen chicken feet that had passed their expiry date, turned white with mold and begun to smell, with signs they were about to be shipped to buyers. Some of the meat had rotted before it reached the trade.

The Hanoi City Police investigation agency has opened a criminal case against Nguyen Thi To Loan, 47, and Trang Tuyet Ngoc, 45, on suspicion of smuggling, and ordered both held in pre-trial detention.

Loan directs An Binh Import-Export and Trade Development Joint Stock Company, part of An Binh Group, and ran ABF Food Import-Export Joint Stock Company, the firm that brought in the chicken feet. Ngoc headed an assistants' department at the group.

Between 2023 and 2026, ABF imported 339 containers of chicken feet, about 12,000 tons valued at nearly VND350 billion (US$13.3 million), police said. The shipments came in under a customs regime meant for goods that are processed in Vietnam and then re-exported, which lets them enter free of import duty.

Instead of re-exporting the cargo or completing the paperwork to convert it for domestic sale, and without paying the taxes due, Loan directed Ngoc to sell more than 10,000 tons inside the country, investigators said.

The seized chicken feet. Photo courtesy of Hanoi police

Chicken feet are a popular dish in Vietnam, usually grilled or braised, and frozen feet are heavily traded across Asia.

A large share of the imports came from countries experiencing poultry disease outbreaks, or had been barred for other food-safety reasons, and did not appear on Vietnam's list of products approved for import, according to police.

The feet were sold to consumers through restaurants and eateries, and pushed out through wholesalers to provinces including Lai Chau, Cao Bang, Lang Son, Ninh Binh, Hung Yen and Quang Ninh, as well as the capital.

Investigators moved on June 4, searching warehouses at the Quang Minh Industrial Park in Hanoi and the THL cold storage in Lang Son Province.

The moldy 260-ton haul turned up at the An Viet 2 cold storage, run by An Viet Hanoi Co., where police counted more than 1,000 tons of chicken feet in all. At the THL site they seized a further 1,030 tons.

The investigation is ongoing.