Fishing News
When Is a Catfish Not a Catfish? - When It Comes From Vietnam and Cuts Into U.S. Sales, Hill Says
By Philip Brasher, The Associated Press
It has whiskers and feeds at the bottom of rivers, but can no longer be sold as a catfish if it comes from Vietnam.
Congress has barred labeling catfish from Vietnam as catfish because imports are cutting into sales of more expensive U.S. catfish grown in man-made ponds in the South.
Instead, importers, restaurants and grocery stores will have to use a name such as "basa."
"We were seeing our market just plummeting with cheap imitation lines that were taking over the buffet lines and showing up on menus as catfish," said Hugh Warren, executive vice president of the Catfish Farmers of America.
The Vietnamese fish are sometimes labeled "Delta fresh," as in the Mekong Delta, not the Mississippi.
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