October 23, 2006

 

US fish farmers call for fair competition in US seafood market

 

 

American catfish farmers have appealed to the US Congress to resolve the continued use of banned antibiotics and carcinogenic chemicals by Asian fish farmers in their exports to the US.

 

Roger Barlow, president of the Catfish Institute, a non-profit organisation based in Jackson, Mississippi specifically named imported Vietnamese catfish as containing additives that are already banned in the US. Barlow added inadequacy by US federal inspections and testing has allowed Vietnam to continue mislabelling their seafood exports.

 

Catfish is the fourth most popular seafood in the US.

 

According to Barlow, Vietnamese exporters continue to mislabel basa and tra (catfish) using species names such as grouper, sole and pike in order to evade antidumping duties.

 

He added mislabelled Vietnamese catfish frequently end-up on restaurant menus wrongly labelled. A study by St. Petersburg Times in Florida found that half of the "grouper" listed on menus in eleven Florida restaurants was actually cheaper imported species, including Vietnamese basa. DNA testing of fish in restaurants in other regions of the US came up with similar results.

 

The concerns of US farm-raised catfish farmers, comprising America's largest aquaculture industry, were explained in a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee which has jurisdiction over trade treaties. The House and Senate are expected to quickly approve legislation authorising permanent normal trade relations with Vietnam after the November 7 election.

 

Among the banned substances found in seafood imported from Vietnam and China are flouroquinolones, a family of strong antibiotics that include Cipro used to treat anthrax.

 

Ingestion of these drugs would cause consumers to build up a resistance to critical pharmaceuticals.

Malachite green, a strong industrial dye and known carcinogen used in Asia as a fish egg fungicide, has also been found in Vietnamese basa and tra and Chinese channel catfish imported into the US.

 

Producers of Vietnamese basa and Chinese catfish have been the subject of at least ten import alerts issued by the US FDA since June 2005 because of banned antibiotics and malachite green. The FDA only tests two percent of all imports coming into the US each year and Asian fish imports are rapidly growing.

 

Barlow is also urging Americans to buy US-raised catfish as Asian aquaculture, particularly in Vietnam and China, are heavily polluted with industrial wastes including heavy metals and human sewage. Banned chemical additives are believed to be used in an effort to clean-up fish destined for export, he said.

 

On the other hand, cultured American catfish are raised under heavily regulated conditions in ponds using underground fresh water aquifers and rainwater. Only chemicals approved for use in US drinking water may be used in these catfish ponds, Barlow said.

 

The US catfish industry supports normal trade relations with Vietnam but seeks to have fair competition, Barlow said.