Vietnamese government strongly protested the decision of World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on naming Vietnamese catfish in the Red List in a handbook for seafood consumption, according to Nguyen Phuong Nga, Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokeswoman at a press briefing?in Hanoi?on Thursday.

Nga said at the press briefing that Vietnamese government felt regretted as WWF made unobjective and non-evidence based assessments on Vietnamese catfish.

These assessments will heavily hurt the livelihood of tens of thousands of Vietnamese farmers working in aquatic production business and Vietnamese catfish consumers in overseas markets.

The WWF's decision will also have unavoidable impacts on trade and economic relations between Vietnam and the European Union countries, said Nga.

Vietnamese aquatic production exporters strictly follow the highest international standards on sustainable production process and food safety including the SQF 1000 certification by the US- based Food Marketing Institute and Good Agricultural Practices by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations among others, according to Nga.

Vietnamese government urged the WWF to remove Vietnamese catfish from the red list in the in WWF Guide Handbook for seafood consumption in 2010-2011, and "correct its mistake" of advising European consumers to look for alternative seafood, said Nga.

Vietnam is willing to invite WWF's representatives to make a fact-finding tour to Vietnam's fish farms as well as the catfish processing, preservation, and export factories, said Nga.

Vietnamese official statistics showed that Vietnam earned 1.15 billion U.S dollars by exporting 538,200 tons of catfish to more than 120 markets in the first ten months of this year.

The European Union is the biggest market for Vietnam, buying 423 million U.S dollars in the first ten months of this year, accounting for 36.8 percent of the country's total catfish export volume.