Shenzhen customs’ parallel trading crackdown has knock-on for local businesses

Pharmacies at Sheung Shui say they lost between 30 to 50 per cent of their business on Monday, as Shenzhen customs launched a crackdown on parallel trading at one of their border checkpoints.

The mainland operation, which began at the weekend, left the space between Lok Ma Chau checkpoint in Hong Kong and ­Futian port in Shenzhen packed with thousands of travellers for hours on Sunday, as officers carried out more rigid inspections.

While tourists and residents complained about the extra hours spent queuing, some veteran ­parallel traders said the tightened checking had little impact on their operations.

Alran Yeung, a manager at a Shenug Shui pharmacy – a ­popular district for parallel traders to buy goods, which are later sold across the border at a profit – told the Post there was an “apparent decline” in the number of traders to his shop on Monday, and he saw sales drop 30 to 40 per cent.

“It was not the first time,” Yeung said. “Whenever the Shenzhen customs launch operations [to crackdown on parallel trading], business on the next day would be slower.”

But Yeung said the number of traders would return to normal three or four days after the crackdown. “I would not worry about that,” he said.