| Thursday October 18th 2001 |
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Catfish in the South The Vietnamese invade Oct 4th 2001 | LAKE VILLAGE, ARKANSAS
From The Economist print edition A feline-piscine trade fight
A WORD on southern etiquette: never wear flip-flops to visit a catfish plant. At Farm Fresh Catfish, a processing plant in the humid Arkansas delta, bloody fish parts float in puddles on the floor. For the shower-capped men stabbing catfish on to a spiked rotating machine, the work is good money: $8 an hour in one of the poorest parts of America. Now they say that their jobs are being “stolen” by cheap Vietnamese imports. Catfish is a Dixie delicacy that other Americans increasingly like. One recent poll placed it as the country's third-favourite seafood, beaten only by shrimp (prawns) and lobster. Around 600m lb (272m kg) of catfish, worth $500m, are sold every year in America. Nearly all the home-grown catfish comes from four states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. Last year, some 7m lb of catfish were imported from Vietnam, compared with 2m lb in 1999 and 575,000lb in 1998. Despite their tiny share of the market, the Vietnamese are blamed by the farmers for falling prices, from about 80 cents per lb to 60 cents in the past year. The southerners say they have to meet stricter rules than their Asian competitors. Their catfish are raised in clay-based ponds filled with purified water pumped from underground wells. A typical pond covers 10-20 acres, and is around five feet deep. All the American ponds have to be tested by the Department of Commerce and to meet the standards of the Catfish Institute (an organisation still grander than it sounds). The Vietnamese catfish, often called basa or tra, have no such institute. They are raised in cages that float in dirty marshes in the Mekong river—or so says Marion Berry, a Democratic congressmen from Arkansas. Having visited the country this year, he was horrified by the conditions, and talks darkly about the possibility of toxins from the Vietnam war that might be still in the river. Mr Berry is one of the backers of a bill in the House that would require country-of-origin labelling for all fish sold to consumers in the United States. The Vietnamese are also accused of using labels that include words like “Cajun” (to imply a Louisiana heritage). In July, Vietnam's ministry of fisheries announced a new rule requiring exporters to label their wares “Product of Vietnam” or “Made in Vietnam”, but said nothing about Cajun. This week Congress approved a bill to normalise trade relations with Vietnam. But several southern senators, led by Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, also introduced a labelling bill that would narrow the definition of “catfish” to exclude basa or tra (which they claim to be as different scientifically from catfish “as a cow is from a yak”). There is also talk of an anti-dumping suit on the basis that Vietnamese catfish has, at times, been as much as $1 a lb cheaper than its American equivalent (the price fluctuates pretty dramatically). The prospects for more precise labels are small. In many labelling arguments—particularly those over genetically modified foods in Europe—America is making exactly the opposite case, decrying enforced labelling as protectionist. Undeterred, the southerners will start selling their own fish with huge red, white and blue “Made in America” stickers. |
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OPINION | WORLD | BUSINESS | FINANCE & ECONOMICS | SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY PEOPLE | BOOKS & ARTS | MARKETS & DATA | DIVERSIONS | PRINT EDITION  Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2001. All rights reserved. Legal disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Help | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Catfish in the South The Vietnamese invade Oct 4th 2001 | LAKE VILLAGE, ARKANSAS
From The Economist print edition A feline-piscine trade fight
A WORD on southern etiquette: never wear flip-flops to visit a catfish plant. At Farm Fresh Catfish, a processing plant in the humid Arkansas delta, bloody fish parts float in puddles on the floor. For the shower-capped men stabbing catfish on to a spiked rotating machine, the work is good money: $8 an hour in one of the poorest parts of America. Now they say that their jobs are being “stolen” by cheap Vietnamese imports. Catfish is a Dixie delicacy that other Americans increasingly like. One recent poll placed it as the country's third-favourite seafood, beaten only by shrimp (prawns) and lobster. Around 600m lb (272m kg) of catfish, worth $500m, are sold every year in America. Nearly all the home-grown catfish comes from four states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Arkansas. Last year, some 7m lb of catfish were imported from Vietnam, compared with 2m lb in 1999 and 575,000lb in 1998. Despite their tiny share of the market, the Vietnamese are blamed by the farmers for falling prices, from about 80 cents per lb to 60 cents in the past year. The southerners say they have to meet stricter rules than their Asian competitors. Their catfish are raised in clay-based ponds filled with purified water pumped from underground wells. A typical pond covers 10-20 acres, and is around five feet deep. All the American ponds have to be tested by the Department of Commerce and to meet the standards of the Catfish Institute (an organisation still grander than it sounds). The Vietnamese catfish, often called basa or tra, have no such institute. They are raised in cages that float in dirty marshes in the Mekong river—or so says Marion Berry, a Democratic congressmen from Arkansas. Having visited the country this year, he was horrified by the conditions, and talks darkly about the possibility of toxins from the Vietnam war that might be still in the river. Mr Berry is one of the backers of a bill in the House that would require country-of-origin labelling for all fish sold to consumers in the United States. The Vietnamese are also accused of using labels that include words like “Cajun” (to imply a Louisiana heritage). In July, Vietnam's ministry of fisheries announced a new rule requiring exporters to label their wares “Product of Vietnam” or “Made in Vietnam”, but said nothing about Cajun. This week Congress approved a bill to normalise trade relations with Vietnam. But several southern senators, led by Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas, also introduced a labelling bill that would narrow the definition of “catfish” to exclude basa or tra (which they claim to be as different scientifically from catfish “as a cow is from a yak”). There is also talk of an anti-dumping suit on the basis that Vietnamese catfish has, at times, been as much as $1 a lb cheaper than its American equivalent (the price fluctuates pretty dramatically). The prospects for more precise labels are small. In many labelling arguments—particularly those over genetically modified foods in Europe—America is making exactly the opposite case, decrying enforced labelling as protectionist. Undeterred, the southerners will start selling their own fish with huge red, white and blue “Made in America” stickers. |
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OPINION | WORLD | BUSINESS | FINANCE & ECONOMICS | SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY PEOPLE | BOOKS & ARTS | MARKETS & DATA | DIVERSIONS | PRINT EDITION Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2001. All rights reserved. Legal disclaimer | Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Help | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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