Last year WWF had placed Vietnamese pangasius on its “red list” of species to avoid, which ignited an uproar. Now its “fish expert,” Catherine Zucco, has been actively involved in making a program denigrating the industry. Researchers study pangasius in German supermarkets and in Vietnam where “90 percent of the pangasius fillets” sold in Germany are produced. Press release states that pangasius is a well-loved and low-priced fish, whether purchased deep-frozen in the supermarket or fried in the canteen — workers’ canteens in big factories are an important market for pangasius in Germany — and 40,000 metric tons “landed on German plates” in 2010. However, it says that environmentalists are now sounding the alarm: “Pangasius stresses animals, human beings and the environment alike.”
During their research, Höft, Jentzsch and Zucco found “a lot of bad situations,” starting with “the pouring of chemical contaminated off-flows from the farming sites into the Mekong River” to “the massive use of antibiotics in the farms.” The three researchers also discovered many things about processing, the feed used for pangasius and the marketing of the final product that will alarm environmentally conscious consumers.
There are nearly 400 Vietnamese seafood processors qualified to export directly to the EU market. Methods of farming pangasius in Vietnam are also being upgraded and the farms and feed mills audited. Farmers are even obtaining Global GAP certification. Aquaculture marketing firm Callander McDowell has no doubt that this is the real reason why the WWF put pangasius on its red list to start with.
He says that the message to pangasius farmers is clear. Sign up to the ASC and then pangasius will be given a green or yellow rating. Alternatively, ignore the ASC and the WWF will continue to recommend that consumers avoid pangasius. Unfortunately for pangasius farmers, despite the VASEP-WFF agreement, when pangasius was removed from the red list — it is said that pangasius is still on the red list in Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark — it wasn’t placed on the yellow or green list, but on a new list of “moving toward certification.”
