A Strange Welcome to the Free Market

While I was looking over the menu at a restaurant while on a business trip last year, I noticed that basa was on the menu.  I love catfish so I ordered both an appetizer with basa and a main dish.  My co-workers were curious as to why I seemed so enamored with something they'd never heard of.  "It's catfish," I said.  I went on to explain that a law requires catfish from Vietnam to be labeled as "basa".

Catfish farming is relatively new to the agricultural industry.  Farmers developed methods to breed and grow channel catfish in ponds and distribute the delicious fish to grocery stores, fish markets and restaurants throughout the country.  It's been a lucrative industry.  Like all money making industries, catfish farming has attracted new businesses both at home and abroad who wish to get a piece of the lucrative market.  And like fruit, sugar, cotton and other products, producers have strived to impede the competition.

Like its neighbor to the north, the once communist Vietnam has been softening up its trade policies and slowly dabbling in free market capitalism.  One of the markets they tried to enter is the U.S. catfish market.  The Mekong Delta turns out to be a great place to breed and grow catfish.  Rather than growing the fish in ponds, the farmers build cages in the river itself.  It's a lower cost means of production, and Vietnamese catfish usually goes for about $1/pound less than U.S. catfish.  With the Vietnamese competition taking a piece of the market and cutting profits, U.S. producers sought out on a mission to stop the competition.

The best way to stop the competition is to lobby Congress.  Because of international trade agreements, their options were limited.  In 2002 they came up with the idea that Vietnamese catfish wasn't real catfish.  There are various breeds of catfish: channel catfish, bullheads, flatheads, blue catfish, the little inch-long catfish you can put in your aquarium...  Different breeds of catfish can be found in rivers throughout the world.  The warm rivers of South East Asia provide a good habitat for catfish.  They're all catfish.  But U.S. catfish producers managed to convince Congress and the Bush administration that catfish from Vietnam shall not be called "catfish" but "basa".  Any catfish from Vietnam must be labeled as "basa" in the U.S.  You won't find it in your local grocery store.  It's mostly served in restaurants.

But the catfish lobby kept pressing for more.  In 2008 they convinced Congress and the Bush administration that Vietnamese catfish posed a health risk.  About 3% of salmonella deaths each year are attributed to fish.  No death in the U.S. has ever been attributed to Vietnamese catfish.  Nevertheless, U.S. catfish producers convinced the government that Vietnamese catfish posed an elevated risk and needed to be subjected to an enhanced inspection process.

Catfish producers from Vietnam say the rules do not allow sufficient time for foreign producers to convert from the Food and Drug Administration inspection process. Under the 2008 farm bill, catfish inspections are to move to the USDA.  Foreign importers say, the program would effectively ban their product.  Welcome to the free market, Vietnam.

And this is why I was so eager to eat the basa at that restaurant.  Knowing the underhanded trade practices of the U.S. catfish industry, I hadn't had an appetite for catfish for years.  As I saw it in the supermarket, I just passed it by.  When I saw it on that menu, it was not only a chance to eat the catfish that I love so much, it was also a chance to thumb my nose at immoral trade practices.  And it was just as delicious as any catfish I ever had.