Cheap catfish a threat

BY SALLY KIDSON

A controversial variety of Vietnamese catfish is being sold in some Nelson supermarkets, and fishermen say sales of the ultra-cheap fish are already seriously harming their business.

Basa, or Vietnamese catfish, is farmed in the highly polluted Mekong River.

The fish is sold in the Nelson and Stoke Countdown supermarkets, and this week was selling for $6.95 a kilogram, undercutting the cheapest New Zealand-caught fish by $8.

Grocery giant Progressive Enterprises, which owns the Countdown chain, is defending the fish as "affordable and a nice eating fish".

However, opponents have attacked the environmental conditions in which basa are grown. They say the fish are farmed in waters polluted with sewage and agricultural chemical runoff and traces of other toxins.

Pursuit Fishing director Lisa Roach handed out posters to customers at Countdown Trafalgar Park informing them about the fish, which she said was farmed in the "toilet bowl of Asia".

She said she wanted Countdown to label where basa came from, and that if customers knew how and where the fish was farmed, they would not buy it.

Mrs Roach said she was raising awareness of basa on behalf of the New Zealand fishing industry, as the fish had the potential to "seriously hurt" fishermen who were already struggling under tight margins.

Talley's had sent her a letter this month saying the company was halting purchases of ghost shark for five weeks, as it had unacceptable levels of the species in stock. The letter, signed by Peter Talley, said the biggest effect on the company's sales of ghost shark was imported basa.

"Ghost shark is a traditional eating fish in New Zealand fish'n'chip shops, a market that has rapidly been eroded by farmed catfish imports (basa)," the letter said.

Talley's was offering fishermen 12 cents a kilogram for ghost shark landed during the closure period, which would be turned into fish meal.

Mrs Roach said the hoki season started in five weeks, and her company usually caught ghost shark until it started.

New Zealand Federation of Commercial Fishermen president Doug Saunders-Loder said the organisation's main concern was that basa was being sold so cheaply, in direct competition to fish caught by New Zealand fishermen.

Mr Saunders-Loder said species like terakihi retailed at $18 a kilogram, which might sound expensive. However, consumers needed to weigh the costs involved in catching, processing and selling it against the $6 they were were being asked to pay for Mekong Delta farmed fish with "high levels of bacteria and pollutants".

He said the sheer volume of basa that was being farmed and sold around the world meant it could seriously affect the New Zealand fishing industry.

Mr Saunders-Loder said he understood that almost half a million tonnes of basa were sold worldwide every year. New Zealand's biggest whitefish market, hoki, measured 120,000 tonnes.

Rob Sharland of Guyton Fisheries said Nelson was the largest fishing port in Australasia and did not need imported basa.

Guyton could not afford to sell fish at $6 a kilogram, he said.

"They must be paying $1 a kg for (basa)."

Progressive Enterprises media spokeswoman Penny Newbigin said reports from where the supermarket chain sourced the fish said it was farmed in clean waters, and testing showed that it was up to standard.

Basa was affordable and a nice-tasting fish, she said.

The fish was labelled as basa at Countdown's Trafalgar Park store this week, but the label did not say it was imported from Vietnam.

Ms Newbigin said Progressive's advice to stores was that it should have country of origin labelling. The company would follow this up with the store.

The New Zealand Food Safety Authority's assistant director of monitoring, Glen Neal, said 20 samples of basa were tested and no detectable levels of antimicrobial residues were found. In one sample, however, the antifungal chemical gentian violet was found at the low level of 2.2 parts per billion.

He said the chemical at that level would not pose a risk, but he was surprised to find it in fish from Vietnam, as it was not an approved chemical for agriculture there.

SMELLY FILLETS TASTE BLAND

Unwrapping thawed fillets of basa, Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology cookery tutor Serge Crottaz is not unhappy with what he sees.

The pack of thawed basa fillets cost $2.84 and Mr Crottaz says there's enough fish there to feed a family of four. He remarks the fish looks white and firm.

However, after bringing it up to his nose he says he can smell a definite chlorine odour. "That's disgusting," he says.

Mr Crottaz fried the fillets in a mixture of butter and lemon juice and was happy with the way they fried up.

The fish held together well, and didn't flake or fall apart when cooked, which made the fish easy to cook with, he said. However, after he had finished cooking it he said he was concerned it was still quite soft and hadn't firmed up as much as you would expect a protein naturally would – something he described as "a bit disturbing".

He said the fish tasted fairly bland, even after he seasoned it generously.

However, the mildness of the fish meant it would take on the other flavours of the dish, he said.

Mr Crottaz wasn't impressed with the crumbed basa, saying the crumbs were too thick and the fish was bland.

Overall he said the basa was a fairly bland fish that cooked up well, but he was disturbed by it's definite chlorine odour.

Professional cookery students were initially keen to taste the fish and initially gave the fish the thumbs up, but changed their minds and screwed their noses up, on learning they were eating farmed catfish from the Mekong River.

Rose Poharama-Hepi said the thawed fillets were juicy and the crumbed basa was all right, but after learning where it came from she thought it was disgusting and would never eat it again.

Louie Alleyne said he also liked it while eating it, but said he would not be eating it again.

"No way," he said. "I feel violated."

- © Fairfax NZ News