Tuna exporters from Vietnam are turning to the Middle East after facing recent difficulties shipping to the United States and Germany, according to the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP).
Vietnam shipped tuna products worth USD 62 million (EUR 54.1 million) to the Middle East between January and August this year, up 42 percent year-on-year. Processed tuna accounted for USD 49.9 million (EUR 43.6 million) of that total, up 55.2 percent from the same period last year and accounting for 80.5 percent of the total export value. The Middle East was the third-largest buyer of tuna from Vietnam in the eight-month period, after the United States and European Union.
The Middle East consumes about 200,000 metric tons of canned tuna each year and the demand is expected to continue rising in coming years, making the region an optimal market for Vietnamese tuna exporters to expand into, according to VASEP. Fourteen countries in the Middle East currently import tuna from Vietnam, with Egypt and Israel being the two biggest markets. Vietnam is the third-largest supplier of tuna to Egypt, after Thailand and Indonesia. As prices of skipjack tuna from Thailand and Indonesia have risen recently, Egypt – which mostly imports canned tuna – has shifted to lower-priced tuna from Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Vietnam was the second-biggest exporter of tuna to Israel, after Thailand. Vietnam has a majority share of frozen tuna sales in Israel, while most canned tuna in the country is supplied by Thailand, according to VASEP.
Although the United States remained the top destination for Vietnam’s tuna in the first eight months of this year, the export value from it fell 6.4 percent year-on-year to USD 139 million (EUR 121.14 million) in the period. The higher duty imposed by the United States on Chinese tuna products as part of the Sino-U.S. trade war is expected to boost demand for alternative supply, including that from Vietnam, VASEP said.
Vietnam gained USD 102 million (EUR 88.9 million) from tuna shipments to European Union over January-August, up 26 percent from the same period last year. The “yellow card” imposed by the European Commission in October last year did cause negative impacts on the export volumes to the bloc in the period. But the export value still rose because of higher prices.
The export value gained from Germany, the biggest market for Vietnamese tuna products in European Union, declined in the first eight months, while the value from Spain and the Netherlands surged, VASEP said.
Photo courtesy of Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers
