No melamine was found in Mekong Delta fish that had eaten melamine-contaminated fish cooking earlier this year, said an official from Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Processors (VASEP).

The official said National Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Quality Administrative Directorate of Vietnam (Nafiqad) inspected fish at CanTho Agricultural & Animal Products Import/Export Company (Cataco) farms and processing plants after the company used 55 tons of a 100-ton shipment of fish food from China that was found contaminated with melamine in September.

Nafiqad’s Mekong Delta offices tested 15 samples from Cataco fish ponds and 10 from the firm’s processing plants.

VASEP said Nafiqad had determined that all samples were safe for export.

Seafood products are a key Vietnam export and earned about US$3.8 billion in the first ten months of the year, a 23.3 percent year-on-year increase, according to the General Statistic Office of Vietnam.

Reported by Minh Quang