Chinese consumers have been slow to embrace tuna, so the nation’s massive tuna-fishing fleet has turned abroad to markets like the E.U. to sell its catch, worrying competitors that its takeover of the global market share is showing no signs of slowing down.
The canning industry in the E.U. has been increasingly utilizing Chinese tuna, with the country increasing its market share in the bloc from 9 percent to 24 percent of tuna purchases between 2015 and 2022. During the same period, Ecuador saw its share drop from 32 percent to 26 percent.
China sold tuna loins at USD 4,200 (EUR 3,822) per metric ton (MT) during the time frame, which was USD 1,200 (EUR 1,092) cheaper than the average Ecuadorian shipment, according to Ecuador’s National Fisheries Chamber of Commerce.
China has been successful in using the E.U.’s autonomous tariff quota (ATQ) system, which entails a complete suspension or reduction of duties attached to a volume of fishery products entering the region’s borders, for products like tuna. In the period from 2020 to 2023, China sent an average of 35,000 MT of tuna annually into the E.U. that was tariff-free, according to the E.U. parliament.
The surge of Chinese tuna into the bloc has angered some E.U.-based tuna producers.
“Cheap tuna produced with lower standards than European regulations require, especially regarding labor conditions onboard tuna vessels, has been and still is a real threat to E.U. tuna producers because we cannot compete fairly with subsidized fleets and processing industries of tuna loins in China,” Julio Morón, the director general of Madrid, Spain-based tuna producers representative body OPAGAC, told SeafoodSource. “Further, the E.U. consumer is unable to identify the origin of tuna once it is in the can because the current marking requirements exonerate tuna cans for marking the vessel’s nationality that caught the fish it contains.”
Morón said he also believes the Chinese tuna fleet benefits from subsidies not available to the E.U. fleet.
“Since the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy of the E.U. more than 10 years ago, the E.U. fleet does not get any direct subsidies, and the Chinese fishing and processing industries get subsidies,” he said.
One reason Morón is especially displeased is that China has become a major seafood supplier to Spain, directly competing with Spanish producers.
Spain’s imports of canned and preserved seafood from China in 2023 jumped 32 percent by value year over year to EUR 113 million (USD 124 million). Spain also imported EUR 90 million (USD 99 million) worth of fish fillets from China in 2023, which was up 29 percent year over year.
This trend is not just playing out in Europe, nor does it seem to be slowing down any time soon.
“From what I see, the Chinese seem to be one of the few nations constructing new or buying existing purse-seine vessels to grow its fleet,” Paul Raftery, a competitive intelligence analyst at fishing technology firm Zunibal, told SeafoodSource.
Chinese government-owned companies like CNFC Overseas Fishery have aggressively expanded in the tuna space, and the sector receives lucrative government subsidies that give it a large advantage compared to other global fishing fleets.
Raftery said it's likely most of China’s new vessels will be flagged to the Pacific islands where the nation has been extending its influence.
“In my view, in the Central and Western Pacific Ocean, tuna is not only profitable but also important politically for China,” Raftery said. “Many of the members of the Parties to the Nauru Agreement like Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Kiribati are moving closer to Beijing and tuna is, I think, a part of this. A China-friendly Western Pacific is important to China and they want to dominate this region through influence. I get the feeling that tuna will continue to grow in importance for China’s fishing industry.”
Taro Kawamoto, the executive vice president of Japanese fishing firm and seafood supplier Sumiyoshi Gyogyo, who was also formerly an adviser to the Pacific Islands for Japan’s Overseas Fisheries Cooperation Foundation, told SeafoodSource that nations like those in the Pacific Islands are likely to continue working with China, which will only help in further establishing dominance over the global tuna sector.
“Local investment includes development aid from the Chinese government and investment by the private sector such as in the construction of tuna-processing plants,” he said. “With a few exceptions, the Pacific Island countries often welcome local investment by China, so economically, it is generally a win-win relationship between China and Pacific Island countries. Therefore, they don’t compete with each other.”
