The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Belgium has removed Vietnamese tra fish from the WWF’s red guidebook in 2010-2011, the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said on January 29. 

 Earlier on January 28, Tran Trung Thuc, Minister Counsellor in charge of the Vietnamese Trade Office in the EU and Belgium, said the office had asked the WWF in Belgium to discuss the issue.

 Philippe Weiler, Head of the Unit Freshwater WWF in Belgium, sent a letter to the Vietnamese Office on January 28, explaining why Vietnamese tra fish had been slowly withdrawn from the red list on its website formatted by PDF.

 However, the name of Vietnamese tra fish remains on the WWF’s red list in Sweden.

 On January 24, after Vietnam had objected to the decision, the WWF in Belgium and Norway refused to remove Vietnamese tra fish from the red list. Later, the WWF in Norway, Switzerland and the Netherlands removed tra fish from the red list after one month implementing the cooperative agreement to develop Vietnamese tra fish sustainably.

 In a letter sent to the WWF in Vietnam on January 26, Mark Powell, who is in charge of global seafood, affirmed that Vietnamese tra fish has been taken out of the WWF’s red guidebook on seafood use in the EU.

 (VOVNEWS)