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WWF red list: After catfish, it is turn of shrimp
The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers has rejected the World Wide Fund for Nature’s decision to place shrimp and tilapia from tropical regions, including Vietnam, in its red list for being farmed/produced in filthy/unhygienic conditions or traded illegally.
The WWF red-listed the two items in its latest consumer guides for Belgium and Germany respectively.
The WWF highly recommends not consuming products in the red list and instead suggests buying from the yellow and green lists.
Those in the green list are good for health and pose no risk to the environment, while yellow-listed ones cause concern over overexploitation that could lead to extinction and cause harm to the environment and biodiversity.
VASEP said the WWF’s move is unreasonable since Vietnamese aquaculture exports have met all international quality standards including SQF of the US-based Safe Quality Food Institute, Global Good Agricultural Practices recognized by the Food and Agriculture Organization, and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, which is mandatory for food for the US’ Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture.
The move is aimed at forcing Vietnamese farmers and processors to adopt the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) standards created by the WWF and the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative last year, VASEP general secretary Truong Dinh Hoe told Tuoi Tre.
Vietnamese shrimp products, also included in the WWF’s red list last year, earned US$271 million from exports to the EU in the first 10 months this year, a 17 percent rise.
Clearly, EU consumers have not rejected Vietnamese products, Hoe said.
“But we need to act right away or else we will lose our customers gradually,” he warned.
Vietnam’s reaction to such incidents seems sluggish, Nguyen Quoc Vong of Australia’s Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology said.
“What we need is scientific proof to back our products,” he told Tuoi Tre, adding that Australian scientists often publish a series of scientific reports about new aquaculture or agriculture species before they are launched.
These reports focus on all aspects, from farming procedures to environmental impacts, he said.
So Vietnamese businesses and scientists must join hands to follow the Australian model since aquaculture and agriculture exports will spearhead the country’s economy for many years, he added.
Vietnam Fishery Department authorities will meet with WWF Vietnam officials Wednesday to discuss the WWF’s red-listing of Vietnamese pangasius. [http://www.tuoitrenews.vn/cmlink/tuoitrenews/business/vietnam-rejects-wwf-claim-says-its-catfish-clean-1.16166]
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is working on a draft regulation to standardize catfish farming and processing nationwide and set up a national catfish association to represent the industry.
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