Fish of the Week - Basa fish

Basa fish Vinh Long market, Việt Nam

The basa fish, Pangasius bocourti, is a type of catfish in the family Pangasiidae. Basa are native to the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam and Chao Phraya basin in Thailand. These fish are important food fish with an international market. They are often labeled in North America and Australia as "basa fish" or "bocourti". In the UK, the species is known mainly as "river cobbler", with "basa" also being used on occasion. In Europe, these fish are commonly marketed as "pangasius" or "panga". Other related shark catfish may occasionally be falsely labeled as basa fish, including Pangasianodon hypophthalmus (iridescent shark) and Pangasius pangasius (yellowtail catfish).


The body of a basa fish is stout and heavy. The rounded head is broader than it is long, with the blunt snout having a white band on its muzzle. This species grows to a length of 120 centimetres (47 in) SL.


Basa fish feed on plants. They spawn at the onset of flood season and the young are first seen in June, averaging about 5 cm by mid-June.


Tests by Asda and Tesco in the UK have found no trace of contaminants. Test from AQIS found trace levels of malachite green, but no other contaminants.


In 2002, the United States accused Vietnam of dumping catfish, namely Pangasius bocourti and Pangasius hypophthalmus, on the American market, charging the Vietnamese importers, who are subsidized by Vietnam's government, of unfair competition. With pressures from the U.S. catfish industry, the United States Congress passed a law in 2003 preventing the imported fish from being labelled as catfish, as well as imposing additional tariffs on the imported fish. Under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ruling, only species from the family Ictaluridae can be sold as true catfish. As a result, the Vietnamese exporters of this fish now label their products sold in the U.S. as basa fish or bocourti.
At the height of the "catfish war", U.S. catfish farmers and others were describing the imported catfish as an inferior product. However, Mississippi State University researchers found imported basa were preferred in a taste test 3-to-1.


Basa has become fairly common in the UK under the name "Vietnamese river cobbler" or just "river cobbler". It is mainly being sold through the large supermarkets in both fresh and frozen forms. It is marketed as a cheaper alternative to traditionally popular white fish, such as cod or haddock. Young's Bluecrest use it in some of their frozen fish products, choosing to use the name basa instead of cobbler.
UK Trading Standards officers have stated cobbler is being fraudulently sold as cod by some fish and chip retailers to capitalise on the large difference in the wholesale price between the two, i.e., cobbler costs less than half the price of cod. This practice was highlighted by the successful prosecution of two retailers (using DNA evidence) one in July 2009, and another in April 2010.