The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) have stated that the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Belgium has removed Vietnamese tra fish from the WWF’s red guidebook 2010-2011.
Tran Trung Thuc, Minister Counsellor in charge of the Vietnamese Trade Office in the EU capital, said his office had asked the WWF in Belgium to look into the issue relating to the Vietnamese tra fish which had been listed in the WWF’s red guidebook.
Philippe Weiler, Head of the Unit Freshwater of WWF in Belgium, sent a letter to the Vietnamese Office dated January 28, explaining why Vietnamese tra fish had been deleted from its red list on its website.
Earlier on January 24, after Vietnam had objected to the decision, the WWF in Belgium and Norway had refused to remove Vietnamese tra fish from the red list. However, the WWF in Norway, Switzerland and the Netherlands removed tra fish from the red list a month after the implementation of a cooperative agreement to develop Vietnamese tra fish in a sustainable manner.
In a letter sent to WWF in Vietnam on January 26, Mark Powell, in charge of global seafood, affirmed that Vietnamese tra fish had indeed been taken off WWF’s red guidebook list. However, it still remains listed on the WWF’s red list in Sweden.
