Maltese farmed tuna producers are planning to send more of their exports to China in the near future as part of market diversification efforts to reduce its currently heavy reliance on Japan.
Charlon Gouder, the head of aquaculture resource firm Gouder and Associates as well as the CEO of the Maltese Federation of Aquaculture Producers, said Maltese tuna firms are at “an advanced stage” of talks with Chinese food safety authorities to begin exporting to China.
“Once finalized, exports of bluefin tuna can commence,” Gouder told SeafoodSource. "The majority of tuna being shipped to China will originate from capture-based aquaculture.”
This shift follows comments made in 2023 by Maltese Fishing Minister Anton Refalo, who called the small island nation’s reliance on Japan “a problem” and said he wanted the tuna sector to diversify its export markets while also extracting more value currently going to Japanese buyers, who, in turn, sometimes reexport Maltese seafood to lucrative Chinese clients.
In an attempt to cut out some of these middlemen, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Republic of Malta and China in November 2023, concerning hygiene and safety parameters regarding farmed products.
However, Maltese tuna remains in high demand in Japan, which buys 95 percent of Maltese bluefin tuna exports. It remains to be seen whether Maltese producers have the capacity to supply the vast Chinese market or whether they will need to increase output to supply China effectively.
Li Xiaonan, the trade director of Base Malta, a Maltese trade and consultancy company, told the Chinese newspaper Global Times late last year that Malta hoped to export between 5,000 to 10,000 metric tons (MT) of bluefin tuna per year to the Chinese market. For reference, Malta’s total production of tuna in 2022 was 15,800 MT, according to the country’s national statistics office.
In an effort to gain inroads with Chinese buyers, Maltese firm Aquaculture Resources exhibited its bluefin tuna a stand organized by Trade Malta and the Malta Food Agency at the recent China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai.
These efforts are likely to continue, according to Li, as better ties with China could lead to more favorable access for Malta’s tuna exports to the Chinese market.
“At this stage, it is still somewhat premature to give a concrete indication of the direction that cooperation might take; however, we believe that there is room for cooperation at the international level through the [International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas],” Gouder said. “Moreover, there is a strong drive to establish a stable supply chain to be able to satisfy the growing demand for tuna by the Chinese consumer.”
