Does WWF mean to sell certificate to pangasius farmers?

The World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) and Vietnam’s Fisheries General Department have failed to reach an agreement on sustainable development of aquaculture in general and tra fish (pangasius) in particular since WWF required that all Vietnam’s tra farmers obtain its ACS certificate.

Addressing a meeting on December 16, Mark Powell, global seafood co-ordinator for WWF, said for the fish to meet sustainable development requirements, Vietnamese breeders must have the ACS certificate.

Like other Vietnamese enterprises that have spent money on having other certificates for their products, tra fish breeders also have to spend money on obtaining the ACS certificate.

WWF’s requirement has raised doubts about the purpose of WWF’s placing Vietnam tra fish on the red list in its consumer guidance manual.

It is claimed that Mr. Powell’s visit to Vietnam is to force breeders to buy the ACS certificate if they want to export the fish to Europe.

WWF has yet to state the cost of the certificate, but according to Nguyen Tu Cuong, a member of the Vietnam Fisheries Association, local enterprises have spent US$7,500 on every five hectares of farmland, so that they are able to apply for the Global GAP certificate.

Mr. Powell said other standards are currently very useful, but according to WWF, standards like Global GAP are merely temporary.

WWF said it wants all farms in Vietnam to have the ASC certificate by 2020.

Mr. Cuong told journalists, after the meeting, that tra breeders and many enterprises are struggling to obtain many various certificates, with the origins of many of these certificates are unknown, for instance, SGS, SQF 1000, SQF 2000, GAA and EroRep GAP.

He said these certificates do not have any legal value to global consumers, and they are in fact only guidance manuals on products issued by certain organizations.

Fish breeders have annually spent hundreds of millions of dong trying to satisfy and comply with production standards, Mr. Cuong said.

They have to pay US$7,500 per year for every five hectares of fish farming areas, which need to be certified as meeting Global GAP standards, he added.

According to Mr. Cuong, ASC standards were just established on October 30.

Earlier, WWF had placed Vietnam’s tra fish on the red list in its consumer guidance manual for 2010-11 and then announced that they would remove the fish from the list.

This announcement was made at a press conference in Hanoi on December 15, after its representatives met with the Fisheries General Department.- SGGP

Tags: pangasius