From a net-lined hole in the floor of the cavernous wooden wellboat, the silvery catch originating from the enormous ponds of Hung Vuong Corporation’s farm, is scooped by workers into large blue buckets.
Workers at the Hung Vuong factory and fish farms unload their live catch of pangasius. © WWF-Canon / Greg Funnell
Pangasius, also known as Asian catfish. © WWF-Canon / Greg Funnell
Great promise, great pressures
Vietnam is the source of more than 90 percent of the world’s pangasius exports, which have has increased 50-fold in the last decade. The majority of this pangasius is farmed in 23 square miles of ponds across nine provinces of the Mekong River Delta, a critically important freshwater habitat. In 2011, the region’s farmed pangasius production amounted to 600,000 tons.
This intensive, high-volume production system is very efficient, a workable commercial method of providing protein to a growing world population that experts estimate could reach 9 billion by 2050.Fish farmers at one of the Hung Vuong Corporation's farms in the Mekong Delta catch and weigh pangasius fish before releasing them back into their ponds. © WWF-Canon / Greg Funnell
A fish farmer at one of the Hung Vuong pangasius fish farms in the Mekong Delta, searches the pond for fish. © WWF-Canon / Greg Funnell
Pangasius producers as conservation allies
The Vietnamese pangasius industry has taken up these standards voluntarily and vigorously. The Vietnamese government and the country’s exporter association have made a commitment to certify 100 percent of the country’s farmed pangasius by 2015, with half of that to be subject to rigorous ASC certification.
WWF is working with 18 Vietnamese pangasius farms, including Hung Vuong’s Phu Tuc farm, to help them comply with ASC standards. Once certified, these farms will collectively certify 9% of Vietnam’s exports – helping meet Vietnam’s commit to pursue ASC certification. Hung Vuong’s owner, Duong Ngoc Minh, believes imposing strict environmental standards is an investment in the future.Farmed pangasius are processed at the Hung Vuong factory in My Tho city, Mekong Delta, Vietnam. From here the frozen fish are distributed worldwide. © WWF-Canon / Greg Funnell
Food for the world
Indeed, with global fish consumption expected to exceed beef, pork, and chicken, it is imperative that farmed seafood is produced responsibly. The certification agreement in Vietnam is a model for how both government and industry can ensure that is the case in the future.
For Hung Vuong, that future is already here. The company will produce 200,000 tons of frozen pangasius fillets in 2012. Most of these fillets will be sold as catfish in Europe and the U.S., and now a growing percentage will be certified to environmental standards in anticipation of the 2015 goal. For Minh, this legacy is more than just a thriving business. “I think in the future, farmed fish such as pangasius will take a special role in supplying food for the world, especially as wild fish continue to decline,” he said.