(seafood.vasep.com.vn) After slowing down in July, Vietnam's tuna exports rebounded in August. Exports to some key markets experienced the good growth over the same period last year.
According to statistics of Vietnam Customs, Vietnam’s tuna exports in August reached more than US$63 million, up 20% compared with August 2017. Therefore, tuna exports in the first eight months of this year increased by 11.6% over the same period in 2017, achieving nearly US$420 million. This growth was attributed by a rise in sales of fresh/live/frozen/dried tuna loins/fillets and other processed tuna from the same period last year. Besides, the recovery of exports to major markets such as the U.S, Japan, and Mexico in August also attributed to the growth of total sales.
The U.S
After 6 months of continuous decline, Vietnam’s tuna exports to the U.S recovered in August with the value of over US$21 million, up 4% compared with August 2017. However, the figure in Jan-Aug 2018 decreased by 6.4% over the same period last year, reaching nearly US$139 million.
Due to the trade war between the U.S and China with U.S’s 10% additional tax on Chinese products including major commercial species such as fresh and frozen skipjack, albacore tuna, yellowfin tuna, bigeye tuna and bluefin tuna. This made the U.S turn to seek alternative sources from countries including Vietnam.
The EU
In August, Vietnam’s tuna exports to the EU continued to grow well. The tuna export value of Vietnam to the EU in this month reached US$18.9 million, up nearly 30% compared with August 2017; the figure in first eight months of the year amounted to US$102 million, up 26% compared to the same period last year.
Vietnam's tuna exports to Germany, the biggest tuna importer of Vietnam in the EU, continued to decline, while exports to the Netherlands and Spain still went up over the same period last year. Notably, tuna exports to the Netherlands in August shot up an impressive 166% rise compared with August 2017.
This year, despite the yellow card warning, thanks to the higher average tuna export price to EU than last year, the export situation to this market still gained positive growth.
Israel
With the continuous growth from March, tuna exports to Israel slowed down over the same period last year. Tuna exports to this market in August only reached US$7.3 million, down 29%; the figure in the first eight months hit over US$48 million. Thanks to the good growth in the previous 5 months, the total export value of the eight months was up 49% over the same period of 2017. And Israel remained as the third biggest importing market of Vietnamese tuna.
ASEAN
Vietnam’s tuna exports to ASEAN in August remained the good growth. In particular, the value of tuna exports to the Thai market increased impressively by 151% compared with August 2017. As a result, ASEAN continued to be the fourth largest buyer of Vietnamese tuna companies with total export value in the first eight months of this year of US$33 million, up 30% over the same period of 2017.