North Korean importers are complaining that inspections of goods at Hyesan’s customs house are taking too long, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Daily NK source in Yanggang Province said that “people who import various goods through the customs house in Hyesan to sell wholesale have been really unhappy lately.” He said this is because inspections at the customs house “take at least three days and usually five.”
When sellers receive seasonal goods such as clothing or shoes late, they have to wait until the following year to sell them. As a result, people who import such items are on edge every time the goods undergo an inspection.
In addition, because clothes and shoes are trendy, their prices plummet when they are sold the following year, leading to huge losses on the part of sellers. Therefore, importers are inevitably sensitive when inspections take a long time, the source said.
“Before COVID-19, you could collect your goods in about two hours when they came through customs,” he said. “Now, however, the customs office carefully inspects the packaged items one by one, which takes several days.”
In this situation, with the weather getting much warmer, garment and shoe importers are becoming even more unhappy.
According to the source, a Hyesan resident who imports clothes complained, “I imported clothes for the season, but with the weather getting warmer, I’ll have a hard time selling them. Expressing his frustration, he said, “The people who ordered the items won’t take them if I’m even a day or two late, and I’m just out of money because I can’t move the goods. That being the case, I think I’d be better off just resting at home.”
Another Hyesan resident who imports shoes said that even if he receives spring items, “they won’t sell well because the weather now feels like summer.” He said he cannot do business “because even if the goods arrive from China, it takes several days for them to pass through customs. He lamented, “[Customs officials] don’t think about commercial conditions at all, so I think it would be much better to make money as a money transfer agent, despite the risks.”
Some private traders who ran into business difficulties with the closure of the customs houses during the COVID-19 pandemic became remittance brokers, financially connecting North Korean defectors with their relatives in the North and earning a living from the commissions.
The source said these brokers have tried to resume their original import businesses following the recent reopening of customs houses; however, they are finding it hard to make money because the inspections take so long.
Fruit importers have the same problem. Because the customs houses do not have proper storage facilities, the fruit sometimes spoils as inspections take longer in the warmer weather.
Although importers of sugar, cooking oil, and other foodstuffs are hardly affected by season or weather, most traders borrow money at daily interest rates. So the longer the customs inspections take, the more interest they pay.
For example, if you borrow RMB 10,000 on the first of the month and pay it back on the second, you would only have to pay RMB 10,100, which includes RMB 100 in interest. However, if it takes three to five days to repay the loan, you would have to pay 300 to 500 RMB in interest.
“A lot of people say there’s no business worth doing these days, the way things are,” the source said. “Only the government makes money from trade licensed and customs fees. Traders who import goods at their own expense are facing tougher times.”
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