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Vietnamese catfish makes list of US top 10 seafood
Vietnam’s tra and basa catfish have found a place among the 10 favorite seafood products in the US for the first time
Vietnam’s tra and basa catfish have found a place among the 10 favorite seafood products in the US for the first time, according to the US National Fisheries Institute.
NFI’s President, John Connelly, also told officials from the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development at a recent meeting that the top 10 seafood products account for 88 percent of total consumption in the US.
Vietnam earned US$435 million from exporting seafood to the US in the first seven months this year. Catfish accounted for $80.8 million, a year-on-year increase of 14.2 percent, from shipments of 26,000 tons, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors said.
For several years now, Vietnamese catfish exporters have had a hard time selling their products to the US.
Just last May Catfish Farmers of America claimed that Vietnam’s tra and basa are “dirty,” of low quality, and seriously violated food quality standards in the first quarter.
Its website carried a four-minute video about catfish production in the Mekong River titled “Dirty Waters, Dangerous Fish” which purports to show polluted waters and badly maintained fish-processing plants.
Vietnam rejected the charges, saying the fish are raised in floating farms that meet international standards like SQF 1000 and GAP.
The US Department of Agriculture recently revealed its intention to list Vietnamese tra and basa as “catfish” to bringing them into the list of products covered by the Farm Bill.
It highlights the fickle nature of US demands for, in 2002, the department did the exact opposite – it said Vietnam cannot export tra and basa to the US as “catfish” since it feared the domestic catfish industry will be hit.
As a result, Vietnamese catfish has since been labeled “pangasius.”
The Farm Bill promises to pose more hurdles for Vietnamese catfish exports.
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