HCM City (VNA) – The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters andProducers (VASEP) on August 15 published an article on its website sayinginaccurate information about Vietnamese tra fish on several Romanian websites couldaffect Vietnam’s tra fish exports to this market.

VASEP named several websites that publishedfalse news on Vietnamese fish such as realitate.net, ziuanews.ro, bzi.no,adevarul.ro, puppe.ro and secretulsanatatii.net.

Some even called for a boycott of tra fishin restaurants which serve it, according to VASEP, adding that the incorrectinformation in newspapers with a large following, such as adevarul.ro andrealitatea.ro, could cause the false warning to spread more quickly.

Although Romania is a small import market ofthis product of Vietnam with a value of below 5 million USD a year, this kindof news can expand without control online, harming Vietnam’s tra fish exportsto not only Romania but also other European countries, the association alleged.

VASEP is keeping a close watch on the matterthrough the Vietnamese Trade Counsellor in Romania to take appropriate actionsto avoid possible losses for the country.

This is not the first time Vietnam’s trafish has been smeared in Europe. At the beginning of 2017, Spanish commercialtelevision channel Cuatro broadcast incorrect and defamatory information on trafish bred in the Mekong River.

According to the Cuatro report, tra fish isbeing raised in unclean cages and fed with non-industrialised feed like deadfish and other food waste. The report went on to charge that this was whyVietnamese tra fish was cheap.

After receiving information about the Cuatroreport, VASEP sent a letter to local media, rejecting it in its entirety,stressing that Vietnam’s tra fish production was hygienic and safe to consume.

However, exports to this market were stillaffected, down 70 percent year-on-year last year.

According to international experts, thereare several concerns related to the food and environmental safety of this fishwithout scales, but these accusations are unfounded.

Vietnamese tra fish is present in mostmarkets in the world, including choosy ones such as the European Union, theUnited States and Japan. This means the product meets internationalrequirements on food safety and the environment. - VNA