all Basa and Tra fish exports will use the Basa (or Pangsius hypothalmus) brand name

Hanoi (VNA)- From December 31, all Basa and Tra fish exports will use the Basa
(or Pangsius hypothalmus) brand name under a recent decision by the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).

MARD also asked responsible regional centres to utilise the rules of import
markets to test and issue certificates on Tra fish shipments which were sealed
with the Basa trademark.

Other quality standards recommended by MARD include the list of commercial names
and scientific terms of aquatic products jointly prepared by the WorldFish
Centre, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), the European Commission
(EC) and other international organisations.

Nguyen Nhu Tiep, Director of the Animal Husbandry Management Department, said
Vietnam ’s Tra and Basa fish products are available in more than 150 foreign
markets.

Domestic exporters should ask importers in different markets to provide their own
scientific and commercial terms in an effort to get export licences for these
products, Tiep advised.

The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP) explained the
MARD decision as part of efforts towards the long-term goal of establishing a
trademark for Vietnamese fisheries.

VASEP said a number of US catfish producers were lobbying the Department of
Agriculture to list Vietnamese Tra and Basa fish in the catfish category under
the Farm Bill issued in 2008, which would lead to higher import tariffs.

The effort to use the commercial name of Basa for products made of Tra and Basa
fish was necessary now, said the seafood export watchdog.

Tra fish was the key hard currency earner of the fishery sector, bringing in 1.34
billion USD in export revenues in 2009 and expected to reach 1.3 billion USD this
year.--Enditem