Bite: The tale of a fish

However, the local fishing industry is anything but happy with the move. The 200,000 tonnes of pangasius planned to start moving through Zeebrugge is cheap competition for the white fish landed by Flanders’ own fishing industry, as well as the fledgling aquaculture sector.

And the fishermen are not alone: The petition is supported by environmental activists for whom pangasius is not a sustainable alternative to locally landed fish, as well as by big names from the culinary world, among them celebrated seafood chef Filip Claeys of restaurant De Jonkman in Bruges and Tom Vansteenkiste of Belga Queen in Ghent.

“The value of this fish in the kitchen is zero,” Vansteenkiste told De Standaard. “It’s insane that they’re bringing it tens of thousands of kilometres while we have so much better North Sea fish right here.”

At one time pangasius – also known as basa or panga – seemed like the answer to all problems of over-fishing. The fish is reared relatively easily by fish-farmers in Asia and can be sold to consumers as white or pink fillets – boneless, skinless and pretty much tasteless, which is not in itself considered a disadvantage given how many consumers steer clear of anything tasting at all “fishy”.

However, importers into Europe were concerned only with pushing prices down, fisheries representatives in Flanders say, which had two main effects. Firstly, it raised the spectre of chemical adulteration, with the fish fillets being treated with polyphosphates to make the flesh absorb more water – effectively free weight. Secondly, it put many fish-farmers out of business as they were making less than it costs to raise the fish, with market prices of about €0.42 a kilogram, whereas the sustainable price is more like €2.61 a kilogram.

According to seafoodsource.com, about 70% of independent pangasius farmers in Vietnam have stopped production in the past two years. Virtually the only farmers remaining are those employed by the processed food industry itself.

Photo: Alpha/Wikimedia Commons