Vietnam struggles to upgrade pangasius exports, new law will limit soaking and moisture content

Vietnam struggles to upgrade pangasius exports, new law will limit soaking and moisture content

By John Sackton, Seafood.com News This past April, the government of Vietnam unveiled new laws regarding pangasius processing. The law was signed in June, and will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015. The aim is to allow for better control over the quality of pangasius exports
Update: (11/18/2014)

The provisions include:

* suspending the export license of a firm that is found to have caused a rejection in a foreign market
* limiting soaking and moisture content of pangasius fillets to 83%, which is well below current practice
* requiring exporters purchase from approved farms, beginning January 2016.

It is unclear how enforcement will occur, and at what level.

One impact will be on treatments with phosphates to retain moisture.

The new law specifies an acceptable moisture level of no greater than 83%. At present, most product coming into the US has moisture levels of 84% to 86%, with some even higher. A common spec is for 85% moisture +/- 1%.

83% is close to the natural moisture level of pangasius, and it is now known how much natural variation may push a fish over this limit at particular times.

Soaking fish has a dramatic impact on price, as it can substantially change the pounds sold from a given level of raw material. The same calculation impacts scallop prices as well.

For example, a packer with 100 pounds of natural fillets containing 83% moisture could soak this fish to increase the weight to 120 pounds. That means that 20 pounds of water was added to the 83 pounds of existing moisture, giving a product with total moisture of 103 pounds, and total solids – proteins, fats etc, of 17 pounds. This would test out at a moisture level of 103/120 or 86%.

If the government successfully enforced an 83% moisture level, it would be similar to the Canadian requirement that prohibits adding moisture to scallops, and results in a substantial price difference between "dry”and wet scallops.

In the above example, it would mean the packer has 20% less product to sell at the current market price, so presumably they would attempt to increase their prices to compensate.

The new law will require certification of all farms to VietGAP standards,or an acceptable international standard. Processing factories will have to have full traceability.

The law also limits glazing to 10%, except where the regulations of importing countries have a different standard either higher or lower.

The label will have to include net weight, glazing percentage, and the name of any chemical additive used during processing.

Finally, the law provides that the government can suspend the export license for any trader who violates these regulations.