At the very least, there will be seller, buyer, and dont forget transhipper. Then there would also be shippers along the way. For instance, there typically a shipper on the source export country (such as thailand), an intermediate shipper in other countries such as malaysia or singapore, etc. Most of these shippers are working behind scenes without buyer knowing their existence. But there would be times when you aint getting your fish and when you carefully track it down, then all of a sudden they matters.
For example, when the shippers are misinformed, there would be big chances your fish will be stranded on the airport somewhere ;) Or, when your transhipper who kindly manages the wellbeing of your fish during the transit forgets to notify one of the shippers about date changes, whoala, a bunch of your fish will be staying put and you may say hi to them in due course (typically waiting till next shipment).
The dynamicity and complexity of export import relies on a very simple premise. If everyone is well informed ahead of time, then they can prepare to the best of their knowledge, otherwise "accidents" bound to happen. The very unfortunate facts about import export, particularly of live fish, are the uncertainty of the process becomes critical importance since those live fish can't wait around too much. Once they're delayed for 1 day for instance, then chances you'll see half of your shipment drop dead in their nice little plastic wrappers.
However, this doesn't mean that live fish is very difficult to be shipped. No, on the contrary, there are many companies managed to master the skill of export import. These companies do things "in the large", they usually don't deal with you (for shipping 1-10 bettas) :D. Suffice to say that they're very professional. OK, your fish is small potatoes for them, hence you still have to pest them to "can i see it when you get your import in?", but their dealings with you are very simple too. They import your fish, you tell them "oh, by the way, they are bettas, so you can just put them in small container", which then they would easily do, they take care of all paperworks amongst all the big fish they've imported, you'll ask them when you can get your bettas after quarantine, then presto, you've got your bettas. How much they charged? Very miniscule fee, cause bettas are very much small potatoes for them. Most of the time if you know those companies well, they would do the importation for you for free (dude, it's not like they'll charge you per fish, they have 1000s of fish per import!!). So, the less you pest them, the better.
Anyway, that's provided if you're lucky enough to find these importers. Remember, they dont want to deal with you cause you're small potatoes. But many "big" aquarium have licenses to import fish, so it's the matter of your skills to know them and "tag along" their imports. If you're not lucky enough, then there are other kind souls out there that would help you import the fish for you, for a fee of course. Now, this may not sound promising if you import regularly, but that's the service and you're more than welcome to use it !
The very unfortunate fact on dealing with bettas is the price that you scoop for the fish and the price that you pay in total. This reminds you of something isn't it? Yes, the petrol price! Though bettas is even crazier than petrol.
Let's analyze the situation....Cost of a betta is about a few dollars (give or take). This is the "clean price". Some "designer" bettas costs up to 100 times more than that. We'll discuss "designer" very shortly. Anyway, that's just the cost of the fish. Next you need to add the cost of the importation and shipping. In terms of bettas, this usually is even more expensive than your fish!! So, how crazy is that? Let's say you buy $2 Crowntail, add it up with shipping/import fees, you may ended up paying upto $50 in total. While you can combine shipping cost with other folks, importation fee is where you're stuck. If you're lucky to find nice fella doing the importation, then your overall cost isn't a big deal. Otherwise, you may just as well kiss your hobby goodbye, cause it's just too darn expensive to keep it.
Now, this discussion is not against any transhippers/importers! They justify their cost accordingly. Hey, it's predatorial world that we live in ;) Someone has to feed somebody else's tummy, otherwise nothing will get done. There may be people who attached themselves to the goodness of others, but that's very rare. Does this remind you of something? I bet so, remember how the big supermarket giants such as Coles and Woollies charge exorbitant prices for their "fresh foods" when you know the farmers aint getting anything much for it? Well, giant supermarket always say that they only take very small profit from it. Do you ever believe them? So, whenever you heard "advancing Australia bettas' quality" coming out of someone's mouth, you ought to question if that's just bull of crap or coming from their hearts.
I think everyone pretty much understands the dynamic of this delicate relationship between buyer, seller, shippers, and transhippers. Buyer is afraid to insult transhipper, seller is afraid to insult both buyer and transhipper, and transhipper only afraid when there are too much competition around, otherwise they're pretty much the boss around the house. Also, most buyers are typically happy for transhippers to charge them for their service, provided the charges are reasonable. But once the balance of fees getting to the point where one side looses his standing, then you'll see the dying of bettas as a hobby. In fact, bettas never did took off in Australia. It was initiated a number of times, many hobbists start the process, but then it just die off. Why you must ask? Well, one of the factors is cost. The other is remoteness of our location from each other. But we believe, cost is the main driving force. If we ever want to make bettas as an ever-growing hobby, we need to start with all the support infrastructure. This includes:
- forums (plenty of this)
- transhippers (if they charge reasonably)
- reasonable costs of bettas (which relies on transhippers above for imported bettas)
- sharing ideas/skills (plenty of hobbyists to do this)
- place to show off what you've got (and sell them to other hobbyists)
The first category is similar to buying branded goods (Dior, Armani, etc). Yes, the quality is reflected on the price you pay for it. But have you bought "cheap-quality-but-expensive-price" clothes such as Guess or any other labelled goods? You are not buying the goods (cause it really is crappy quality) but you buy the "brand" !! So, with bettas you really have to be careful to identify whether you're buying the brand or you're getting the goods (and the brand) that you so rightly deserved that come with the price tag.
The second category is similar to finding treasure in the supermarket. In the supermarket, everyone is pretty much selling "the same quality" stuff, but from time to time, you see the good quality ones that catch your eye. These "better" quality fish typically offerred for higher prices compared to other lower quality ones, and may escalate their status as "designer" fish.
Of course there is a third category that we have not discussed much yet. That is when everyone is selling crappy fish as "designer" fish. This is very much reflected in the market too. Have you ever wonder how on earth a crappy T-Shirt costs $12 at Paddy's when you know that they cost only a tenth of that in their originating country? OK, you may try to fool yourself by saying "there are importation costs etc involve", well, let me tell you, that's just another bull of crap. Put it very simple, importers make tons of money, otherwise they won't be in the business. It boils down to how much demand out there for their goods. Back in the old days when there are not that many importers around, then you see the $10 T-Shirt as high demand (they are the cheapest with "reasonable quality" compared to your usual $20 T-Shirt). Now that there are many importers importing the T-Shirt, the law of demand/supply should dictate that the price is lower. Well, that's where you're wrong again. The importers or the sellers get their act together such that they FIX the price!
Well, you may then ask, how is this applied to bettas? Pretty much the same way....The more demands on the market, the more people import fish, the cheaper it should be for the price of importation -- provided there are heaps of competition, otherwise you see the price not changing much or even rising. We are starting to see the price of bettas going down recently on bidding places. This is when the demands slow down. But unfortunately it rises soon after that, cause when there are demands, there are also more supply, and it's dead easy for anyone to jack up the price. Then you see how everyone selling standard quality for the price that designer fish being charged. Now, of course you can always defend big supermarket giants by saying "well, you need to know what you buy and your limit in buying", but that's just crap. If anyone has decency to other hobbyists, then they ought to consider their pricing very carefully.
For instance, there are a number of very decent sellers who are more than happy to offer you very reasonable prices for their fish. Not because they can't jack you up with higher prices, but because they understand the hobby and try to support it. They understand how much that you as a buyer have been ripped off by the "system", hence they try to supply with very reasonable prices, in the hope that you will come back to them and buy more. These kind of sellers are more than recommended cause they're not in the business of ripping you off. They've been in the business for a number of years and understand the fluid of bettas hobby....
Anyway, this post is getting way too long. Hopefully it's a good food for thought for other hobbyists out there. As usual, feel free to contact us for comment (if you prefer not to comment on the blog itself).
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