Vietnam News Brief Service
July 8, 2010
Tennessee State government in the U.S. has issued a new law to require country-of-origin labeling on catfish products from the Mississippi or the Mekong Delta since July 1, said the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
This is the third state after Mississippi and Arkansas to require restaurants and retail stores to tell customers where they get their catfish, with a view to make catfish safer for consumers and to help level a playing field for American catfish farmers.
However, the law will not hurt Vietnamese tra and basa fish exports to the market as the products are not classified as catfish given a 2002 federal mandate, Truong Dinh Hoe, general secretary of VASEP was cited by the Thoi Bao Kinh Te Sai Gon online newspaper as saying.
He added that most Vietnamese tra and basa fish products are exported to California and eastern states.
Vietnam earned $539 million from exporting 250,000 tons of tra and basa fish in the first half of this year, up 13% and 21% on year, respectively.